Religious freedom and Zen in the year 2010

               In 842 CE the Tang Emperor Wuzong declared war on Buddhism in China. He was a Taoist, he had a money problem, his last war had all but bankrupted his government, and so he declared Buddhism an outlawed religion.
                He ordered that all Buddhist lands and property be forfeited to his government. This went a long way towards ending his economic problems. 44,600 monasteries and temples were either seized or destroyed. Over 260,000 monks and nuns were stripped of their robes and sent into servitude or told to return to lay life. Buddhist writings and sutras were outlawed and destroyed. The only school of Buddhism to emerge from this more or less intact was the Chan (Zen) School. Even with their buildings gone and their writings destroyed and outlawed, the heart of Zen kept beating.

           I was thinking about this today and about religious freedom. I wonder how many of us realize how fragile our right to worship as we please is in the year 2010. So I decided check it out. Here is what I found.
          In the following countries the government Licenses religion and will only allow those religions it has decided to license and regulate.

China, Population: 1,313,973,713.
North Korea, Population: 23,113,019.
Vietnam, Population: 84,402,966
Cuba, Population: 11,382,820

            The following countries are either a religious state or have a official state government religion with little or no toleration of other religions:

Afghanistan (Islamic state), Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh (Islamic state) Brunei, Comoros, Egypt

Indonesia (Uses Islamic jurisprudence in private law, and in Aceh special territory as a basic law. Officially also recognize Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism as religion, but the penalty for converting from Islam to another religion is death.

Iran (Islamic state), Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya
Malaysia (Not exactly an Islamic state but does have Sharia courts along with the secular courts), penalty for conversion, death.
Maldives, Mauritania (Islamic state) Morocco, Oman
Pakistan (Islamic state) Qatar, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Saudi Arabia (Islamic kingdom)Somalia (the newly established coalition government announced in March 2009 that it would implement shari'a as the nation's official judicial system. Tunisia United Arab Emirates, Yemen (Islamic state) Algeria, Bangladesh, Comoros, Somalia, Jordan, Indonesia (Aceh Special Province Only)
Iran
Buddhist state governments:
Bhutan, Cambodia, Kalmykia, A republic within the Russian Federation (Tibetan Buddhism- sole Buddhist entity in Europe) Sri Lanka (Theravada Buddhism) - The constitution accords Buddhism the "foremost place," but Buddhism is not recognized as the state religion. Thailand.

Jewish states:  Israel,

         In Cameroon, Kenya and Zambia, the new Christian regimes, backed by western evangelicals are passing laws to stifle other religions and make homosexuality a crime punishable by death. Showing that Christianities will to theocracy is not dead and still thriving.
         The above is not an exhaustive list by far, but if you just “assumed” religious freedom was the normal state of affairs in the world, I think it shows you are wrong.
         Religious liberty is in fact atypical in our 21st century and should be guarded at all costs.

I wonder how well Zen would fair should we face another Emperor Wu?