Affected by the threat of terrorism, in Iraq and Palestine dozens of thousands of Christians opted for exile, while in Saudi Arabia and Iran religious freedom is seriously breached and in India the Christian missionaries systematically suffer abuse. These are some of the indications of the Papal Board Acs (Aiuto alla Chiesa che soffre), which, in its 2006 report, presented in Rome today, gives a picture of religious freedom in the five continents. The worst is Asia, where this right is seriously breached, even in Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and North Korea. In China, concentration and torture camps for Falun Gong and Tibetan Buddhists are in full swing, and Catholics and Protestants keep being arrested. In Indonesia, religious freedom is threatened by Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. As to Africa, the conflict in Uganda has caused the death of a Caritas worker and has created a climate of persecution against the Catholic Church, while Algeria has passed a law against conversions to Islam, which in the meantime is relentlessly going on in Kenya and Nigeria. In the American continent, despite the peace efforts, violence against religious leaders keeps being committed in Colombia by the Farc; in Venezuela, tension between the state and the Catholic Church is escalating. Problems also exist for the Christian communities in Cuba and Ecuador.
