A report from the U.S. State Department has highlighted the rise of religious intolerance worldwide. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry gave reporters a summary of the "International Religious Freedom" report. He said: "[It] shines light on the challenges people face as they seek nothing more than basic religious freedom and the right to worship as they wish." Kerry said a particularly worrying trend was the increased discrimination against Jews and Muslims around the world. The report highlighted a rise in anti-Islamic sentiment in Europe and Asia, and an increase in anti-Semitism in other parts of the world. Kerry warned that: "When countries undermine or attack religious freedom, they threaten their country's own stability."

The report opened with a quote from President Barack Obama, who said religious freedom was, "an essential part of human dignity, and without it our world cannot know lasting peace". The report outlined how nations were repressing religious freedom. It said: "Numerous governments imposed…undue and inappropriate restrictions on religious groups and abused their members, in some cases as part of formal government law and practice." The report also warned that denying freedom of worship increased the danger of political and societal instability. It said such a policy: "Undercuts society's ability to counter and combat the biased and warped interpretations of religion that violent extremists propagate."