WASHINGTON — Millions of people were forced from their homes because of their religious beliefs last year, the US government said Monday, citing the effects of conflicts in Syria, Iraq, and the Central African Republic.
Secretary of State John Kerry called the displacement of families and damaging of communities from sectarian violence a troubling trend in the world, as he launched the State Department 2013 report on religious freedom.
The report, which is released annually, said that in much of the Middle East, the Christian presence is becoming ‘‘a shadow of its former self.’’ Hundreds of thousands of minority Christians have fled Syria after three years of civil war.
It also highlighted more than one million people displaced in the Central African Republic during 2013, amid an upsurge in Christian-Muslim violence.
In Southeast Asia, anti-Muslim violence spread from Myanmar’s volatile west to central Meikhtila, with up to 100 deaths and 12,000 displaced.
Kerry further cited the ‘‘savagery and incredible brutality’’ by the Al Qaeda-inspired militant group active in Iraq and Syria, known as the Islamic State, saying it had slaughtered Shi’ite Muslims and forcibly converted Christians under threat of death.