Eritrea recognises four religious bodies — the Orthodox Tewahedo church, Sunni Islam, the Catholic Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea — and has suppressed the rest since 2002. Even inside the recognised four, the state appoints an administrator over church affairs, controls property and publications, and does not exempt clergy from national service. The government's pressure on the Orthodox church in the 2000s was directed particularly at the Medhane Alem renewal movement, whose members Antonios refused to excommunicate. The diaspora congregations in Europe, North America and Israel operate with far more freedom, and are divided between those who recognise the post-2006 hierarchy and those who do not.