By Jamie Dean
 

http://www.worldmag.com/webextra/17449

Christians across the region said they encountered bureaucratic hassles: Local authorities denied visas to foreign workers and stalled registrations for hundreds of churches. In other countries, persecution wasn’t a new development: The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) kept Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan on its list of countries of particular concern, citing egregious violations of religious freedom in the predominantly Muslim lands.