Proselytism laws, meaning statutes that criminalize or restrict trying to persuade someone to change their religion, exist in dozens of countries and carry penalties that range from administrative fines of a few thousand rubles in Russia to life imprisonment in several Indian states and death in Pakistan and Brunei. The specific conduct that triggers prosecution varies: some countries ban all public religious persuasion, others require government permission before any conversion can take place, and others reach the same result through blasphemy or apostasy statutes that never use the word “proselytism” at all. If you plan to share your faith abroad, run a faith-based humanitarian program, or even post religious content online that reaches a restrictive country, the rules that apply to you depend on the jurisdiction, your citizenship, and sometimes the religion of the person listening.
What These Laws Actually Prohibit
Most proselytism statutes draw a line between private worship and outward religious persuasion. Rituals performed at home or inside a recognized house of worship by existing members are usually left alone. What draws legal consequences is reaching outsiders: handing out literature door-to-door or on the street, holding public gatherings without authorization, broadcasting religious content, or approaching members of the majority faith with a competing message.
A concept that recurs across these laws is “allurement” or “inducement.” Offering food, medical care, education, or financial help alongside a religious message is treated as a form of coercion in many legal systems, even when the recipient is free to refuse. That matters enormously for faith-based humanitarian organizations, because the line between genuine charity and illegal inducement often depends on how a local official interprets intent. Countries with anti-conversion laws tend to apply a strict standard: any overlap between aid and religious messaging can be treated as criminal.
Middle East and North Africa
Legal systems across this region treat the majority faith as part of national identity, and most criminalize organized efforts to draw people away from it. Penalties escalate quickly, enforcement is broad, and foreign nationals typically face deportation on top of criminal charges.
Morocco
Article 220 of Morocco’s Penal Code targets anyone who uses incitement to shake the faith of a Muslim or convert them to another religion, particularly by exploiting a person’s vulnerabilities or by using schools, health facilities, or orphanages for that purpose. The penalty is six months to three years in prison and a fine of 200 to 500 dirhams, roughly $20 to $50.1Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. Morocco: The Situation of People Who Abjure Islam The fine is negligible; the prison term and the authority to shut down any institution involved are the real deterrents.
Algeria
Algeria’s Ordinance 06-03, enacted in 2006, punishes anyone who incites, pressures, or uses persuasive methods to convert a Muslim with two to five years in prison and a fine of 500,000 to 1,000,000 dinars. The same provision covers producing, storing, or distributing materials intended to undermine a Muslim’s faith. Worship outside approved conditions or without authorization is a separate offense carrying one to three years.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia maintains the region’s most comprehensive ban. The government prohibits the public practice of any religion other than Islam and forbids all non-Muslim houses of worship in the country.2United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Saudi Arabia Religious persuasion of any kind is off-limits. Non-Muslim expatriates are technically permitted to worship privately, but “private” is deliberately undefined, and some congregations have voluntarily assured Saudi authorities they do no outreach and bar Saudi citizens from attending, just to avoid interference.3U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Saudi Arabia 2013 Annual Report Foreign workers who cross these lines face arrest, detention, and deportation.
Iran
Iran layers multiple criminal statutes. An amended Article 500 of the Iranian Penal Code punishes “deviant educational or proselytizing activity” by members of groups that contradict Islamic law with up to five years in prison. When an organization has received financial or organizational support from outside the country, that sentence doubles to ten years. Article 499 separately criminalizes insulting recognized religions with intent to cause social tension. Authorities commonly frame underground religious gatherings and distribution of non-Islamic texts as propaganda against the state.
South and Southeast Asia
Several countries in this region have adopted laws officially titled “Freedom of Religion” acts that restrict the freedom to change religions. Rather than banning all persuasion outright, these laws create procedural barriers that make conversion bureaucratically difficult and legally risky.
India
Twelve of India’s twenty-eight states maintain anti-conversion laws, and the trend is accelerating.4USCIRF. USCIRF 2026 Annual Report: India These statutes typically require advance notice to a government official before any conversion. Under Uttar Pradesh’s version, a person wanting to convert must file a declaration with the District Magistrate at least sixty days in advance, and the person performing the ceremony must separately provide one month’s notice. The magistrate then orders a police investigation into the “real intention, purpose and cause” of the proposed conversion. Failing to file renders the conversion illegal and void.5India Code. Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021
The burden of proof sits on the accused to show the conversion was voluntary. Penalties have been rising. Uttarakhand passed a law in 2025 that criminalizes digital speech about religion and raises the maximum sentence for unlawful conversions from ten to fourteen years. Rajasthan’s legislation includes life imprisonment as a possible punishment and requires two months’ notice from the person converting.4USCIRF. USCIRF 2026 Annual Report: India As of late 2025, India’s Supreme Court was reviewing legal challenges against anti-conversion laws in nine states.
Nepal
Article 26(3) of Nepal’s 2015 Constitution provides that no person shall convert another person from one religion to another.6U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. 2023 Nepal Country Update The criminal code backs it up with up to five years in prison and a fine of up to 50,000 rupees, roughly $500. Foreign nationals convicted under this provision face deportation within seven days of completing their sentence. Even informal religious conversations can draw scrutiny if someone files a complaint.
Myanmar
Myanmar’s Protection of Race and Religion laws established a state-regulated system for conversion. Under the Religious Conversion Bill, anyone wanting to change their faith must apply through a local registration board of government officials and community members, who approve or deny the application.7Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Myanmar: UN Rights Experts Express Alarm at Adoption of First of Four Protection of Race and Religion Bills Anyone who facilitates an unapproved conversion is a potential criminal.
Russia and Central Asia
Russia
Russia’s 2016 Yarovaya Law amendments redefined “missionary activity” to cover virtually any effort to share religious information with non-members, whether in person, online, or in print. The law defines it as any effort aimed at spreading information about a religious group’s beliefs among people who are not members, in order to recruit or convert them.8Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Communication from Special Rapporteurs Regarding the Yarovaya Law These activities may only take place in specially designated locations, and groups wanting to engage in them must register with local authorities.
The penalties are administrative rather than criminal, but still substantial. Russian citizens face fines of 5,000 to 50,000 rubles. Religious organizations can be fined 100,000 to 1,000,000 rubles. Foreign nationals face fines of 30,000 to 50,000 rubles plus the possibility of deportation. Distributing religious literature without a label identifying the sponsoring organization is a separate offense carrying fines of 30,000 to 50,000 rubles and confiscation of materials.
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan’s criminal code punishes proselytizing with up to three years in prison. Organizing or participating in an unregistered religious group carries up to five years. The administrative code separately punishes production, storage, or distribution of unauthorized religious materials with fines reaching 30 million soum, roughly $2,400, for individuals.9U.S. Department of State. 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Uzbekistan Repeat offenders face escalating penalties, including corrective labor.
China
China recognizes only five religions: Buddhism, Catholicism, Islam, Taoism, and Protestantism. All religious organizations must register with state-sanctioned patriotic religious associations, and no mechanism exists for groups outside those five to obtain legal status. Unregistered groups cannot legally operate, and their members face administrative and criminal penalties.10GOV.UK. China: Country Policy and Information Note: Non-Christian Religious Groups
The Constitution states that religious groups and affairs “shall not be subject to control by foreign forces,” and clergy are required to “resist infiltration by foreign forces using religion.” Article 300 of the Criminal Law targets anyone who organizes or uses a religious group designated as a “cult” to undermine enforcement of the law, with penalties reaching life imprisonment after a 2015 amendment increased the previous fifteen-year maximum.
Regulations that took effect in March 2022 require a government-issued permit to post religious content on the internet and ban the online broadcasting of religious ceremonies, worship services, and rites.11Congressional-Executive Commission on China. Control of Religion in China Through Digital Authoritarianism Overseas organizations and individuals cannot legally operate online religious information services within China without a permit.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Restrictions in Sub-Saharan Africa are more scattered but severe in certain countries. Eritrea recognizes only four religious groups: the Coptic Orthodox Church of Eritrea, Sunni Islam, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Evangelical Church of Eritrea. Members of all other groups who continue to practice face imprisonment without formal charges, legal counsel, or due process. Prisoners are prohibited from praying aloud, singing, or possessing religious books, and released prisoners report being forced to sign statements promising to stop worshiping.12U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. USCIRF Eritrea Report
Somalia prohibits proselytizing for any religion except Islam. The Comoros Islands restrict proselytism to Sunni Islam only, with deportation for foreign violators. Niger prohibits all public proselytism regardless of faith, though private religious conversations remain legal. Sudan has historically criminalized both proselytizing and conversion from Islam, with enforcement fluctuating with changes in government.
Europe
Europe’s picture is more mixed, but restrictions do exist. Greece is the clearest example. The Greek Constitution, adopted in 1975, states that “proselytism is forbidden,” and the criminal penalties trace back to a 1938 law making it a crime to attempt to change the religious views of another person, even indirectly. The European Court of Human Rights addressed the law in Kokkinakis v. Greece in 1993, recognizing a general right to try to convince one’s neighbor in religious matters but leaving room for governments to restrict “improper” persuasion. Sharing your faith is protected; aggressive or deceptive tactics can still be regulated.
Blasphemy and Apostasy as Back Doors
Many of the most severe restrictions on religious persuasion operate through laws that never mention proselytism. Apostasy statutes criminalize leaving the dominant faith, which indirectly targets anyone who facilitates that departure. Where changing your religion is itself a crime, encouraging someone to do so is treated as abetting a criminal act.13GovInfo. 2023 Anti-Conversion Laws Compendium
Brunei’s Syariah Penal Code Order illustrates how this works. Under Article 113, any Muslim who attempts to commit or cause apostasy faces the same punishment as the offense itself. Article 114 goes further: anyone who helps someone commit apostasy faces up to thirty years in prison and up to forty lashes.13GovInfo. 2023 Anti-Conversion Laws Compendium Brunei’s code identifies apostasy as a capital offense, though the law requires either a confession or the testimony of multiple pious Muslim male eyewitnesses to support a death sentence.14U.S. Department of State. 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom: Brunei
Blasphemy laws serve a similar function. In Pakistan, Section 295-C of the Penal Code punishes anyone who defiles the name of the Prophet Muhammad with death or life imprisonment, plus a fine.15Pakistani.org. Pakistan Penal Code (Act XLV of 1860) – Section: XV of Offences Relating to Religion Because sharing a different faith inevitably involves presenting an alternative to existing beliefs, prosecutors can characterize that speech as an insult to the dominant religion. Afghanistan, Somalia, and Yemen also maintain the death penalty as a possible punishment for apostasy, though actual executions under these provisions are difficult to track.
Online and Digital Religious Speech
The internet is a growing enforcement frontier. Countries that restrict religious persuasion in person have moved to extend those restrictions online, often through cybercrime legislation. China’s 2022 permit regime for online religious content is the most systematic example, but it is not alone.
Egypt has used broadly worded provisions of its Penal Code and Cybercrime Law to prosecute individuals for discussing religious beliefs online. Charges include “contempt of religion” and “spreading extremist ideas,” brought on the basis of social media posts, online videos, and even private digital messages. Targets include atheists, converts, members of unrecognized religious groups, and Muslims whose views differ from state-sanctioned interpretations. Enforcement relies on online surveillance, searches of personal devices, and prolonged pretrial detention on national security grounds.
India’s Uttarakhand state explicitly criminalized digital speech about religion in its 2025 anti-conversion law.4USCIRF. USCIRF 2026 Annual Report: India Russia’s Yarovaya Law already covers internet-based religious communication under its definition of missionary activity.8Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Communication from Special Rapporteurs Regarding the Yarovaya Law A social media post, a YouTube video, or a message in a private group chat can now trigger the same criminal penalties as handing out pamphlets on a street corner. For people used to sharing religious content freely online, this is a serious and often invisible risk when the audience includes people in restrictive jurisdictions.
Extra Exposure for Foreign Nationals
Non-citizens caught engaging in religious outreach in most of the countries above are deported after serving any criminal sentence, and in some cases deportation bypasses the court system entirely. Nepal deports foreign violators within seven days of completing their prison term. Russia’s Yarovaya Law authorizes deportation alongside fines. Saudi Arabia’s enforcement against expatriates can be immediate and can be triggered by private religious activity that authorities deem too public. Labor contracts often require expatriates to conform to Saudi religious customs.
Anyone assuming an embassy will intervene after an arrest abroad should understand the limits of consular assistance. The U.S. Embassy, for example, cannot get a citizen out of jail, provide legal representation, state to a court that someone is innocent, or pay legal fees. Consular staff can provide a list of local attorneys and a general overview of the criminal justice process, but they cannot override the host country’s laws.16U.S. Embassy in Algeria. Arrest of a U.S. Citizen Dual nationals who enter a country on that country’s passport may find the local government treats them solely as its own citizen, further limiting any consular role.
The International Rule That Governments Point To
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by 173 countries, sets a global floor. Article 18 protects the right to adopt a religion of your choice and to practice it publicly or privately, including through teaching, and prohibits coercion that would impair someone’s freedom to choose or change beliefs. The same article includes a carve-out: governments may limit religious expression when the restriction is prescribed by law and necessary to protect public safety, order, health, morals, or the rights of others.17OHCHR. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Most of the bans above are defended on that ground, claiming religious persuasion threatens public order or the rights of the majority. Whether those claims satisfy the ICCPR’s “necessary” standard is a separate question, and international human rights bodies have repeatedly challenged them. For a person facing prosecution, though, the local statute is what the local court will apply.