Muslims lack key religious rights in Angola and are stigmatized in the media and by government officials because of a perceived link to international terrorism and crime, a U.N. report said on Wednesday.

The report cited Asma Jahangir of Pakistan, a special investigator for the U.N. Human Rights Council, as saying the Muslim community had not been officially recognized and authorities had temporarily closed down some mosques last year.

Jahangir said several government actors had expressed concerns to her about the presence of Muslims in Angola and the country was affected by the global trend of associating them with militantism and criminal activity.

"I was told that most of the illegal migrants in the country are Muslims and that they are involved in counterfeiting of money and money laundering, but we were provided with no evidence of this," she said in the report.

"The government is obliged to promote tolerance, and I would hope that unsubstantiated statements by officials will not be made to the detriment of any religious community."

Jahangir, who is officially the U.N.'s special reporter on freedom of religion or belief, went to Angola on November 20 at the government's invitation. She said the invitation showed the authorities' commitment to transparency on religious policies.

But she said religious minorities other than Muslims, including dissidents involved in an inter-religious conflict within the Catholic Church, suffered from restrictive Angolan laws on freedom of belief and worship.

In the enclave of Cabinda, four men were arrested in July under a decree dating from Portuguese colonial times for peacefully protesting at a mass against a newly-appointed bishop, she said.

Jahangir, who chairs the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, also visited two immigration centers in the West African country's capital Luanda.