Report gives view on religious freedom

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A State Department report released Thursday said Saudi Arabia continues to impose strict limitations on religious freedoms.
The report said the Chinese government permitted free religious expression only to organizations approved by the authorities.
"Members of some unregistered religious groups were subjected to restrictions, leading in some cases to intimidation, harassment and detentions," the report said.
The findings were included in the State Department's fifth annual International Freedom Report.
"Much of the world's population lives in countries in which the right of religious freedom is restricted or prohibited," the report said.
"Millions of persons live in totalitarian or authoritarian regimes determined to control religious beliefs and practice," it said.
In Saudi Arabia, the report said, "Freedom of religion does not exist." It said the government continued to enforce "a strictly conservative version of Sunni Islam and suppress the public practice of other interpretations of Islam and non-Muslim religions."
Non-Muslim worshippers, it said, risked "arrest, imprisonment, lashing, deportation and sometimes physical abuse."
Pakistan, another friendly Islamic country, failed in many respects to protect the rights of religious minorities, the U.S. report said. It added that the government tolerates "societal forces hostile to those who practice a different faith."