Atheism
Freedom of Thought Report Shows Faith Turned Into a Weapon | Column
This is an opinion column.
The latest Freedom of Thought Report makes an uncomfortable case. Around the world, religion is being used to assert control. It is also used to legitimise the erosion of hard-won rights.
Humanists International publishes the report each year. It measures how states treat freedom of religion or belief. It also tracks freedom of expression for the non-religious.
What the Freedom of Thought Report reveals
The pattern this year is bleak. Blasphemy and apostasy laws still carry severe penalties in many states. In several countries, leaving or criticising a faith can cost a person their liberty or life.
These laws rarely stand alone. They travel with censorship, surveillance and the silencing of dissent. Faith becomes the cover story for raw power.
The report links this trend to rising authoritarianism. Leaders wrap coercion in sacred language. They cast critics as enemies of the divine rather than of the government.
That framing is effective and dangerous. It makes ordinary disagreement feel like heresy. It hands the state a moral licence to punish.
Secularists have a clear stake here. A secular state does not attack belief. It refuses to enforce any creed, which protects believers and doubters alike.
That principle deserves defence in law and in culture, a theme this outlet has argued before in its writing on secularism and religious freedom. The report is a reminder that the fight is not abstract.
The numbers describe real people. They include the jailed critic, the fleeing apostate, the writer forced into silence. Their cases are the true measure of freedom of thought.
The document should unsettle comfortable readers. Rights erode quietly, then all at once. Naming the pattern is the first step to resisting it.
Fact basis: the Humanists International Freedom of Thought Report and its 2026 analysis of religion and authoritarianism. Outbound source: Humanists International. This column reflects the author’s opinion.