The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which works closely with the State Department, recommended that Iraq, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam also be designated CPCs.

There is a notable common denominator among many of the most religiously repressive places on Earth: radical Islam. Five of the eight CPCs are Islamic states or have Muslim majorities or both, as do eight of the 12 worst offenders designated by the USCIRF. This means that while Muslim nations make up 28 percent of the world’s countries, they represent 67 percent of the worst violators of religious freedom.

Examples abound of state-sanctioned persecution of religious minorities in Muslim nations. Converts from Islam are often forced into hiding or flee their country to avoid incarceration or death. Even private worship of Christianity is outlawed in some Islamic states. There is a growing trend in Muslim countries of governments looking the other way as Muslim men “convert” Christian women to Islam by forcibly marrying them, often after raping them.