Everything about Religious Persecution totally explained
Religious persecution is systematic mistreatment of an individual or group due to their
religious affiliation.
The tendency of societies to alienate or repress different subcultures is a recurrent theme in human history. Moreover, because a person's religion often determines to a significant extent his or her morality and personal identity, religious differences can be significant cultural factors. Particularly (but not exclusively) in cases where the person's religion fails to emphasize a love and tolerance for all humanity, he or she may fall into the trap of considering practitioners of another religion as amoral or inferior. At a societal level, this dehumanization of a particular religious group may readily turn into violence or other forms of persecution. Even those who consider
religiosity in general to be declining (for example those believe
secularization is progressing) would agree that religious persecution continues to be a serious issue worldwide. Global media coverage of increasing numbers of participants in religious
fundamentalism and
religiously related terrorism obviate the prevalence of such persecutions worldwide. Indeed, in many countries of the world today, religious persecution has resulted in so much violence that it's considered a
human rights problem.
Forms of religious persecution
A situation in which religious persecution occurs is the opposite of
freedom of religion. However, freedom of religion isn't necessarily identical with the
separation of church and state and
religious pluralism. In a country that isn't a
secular state, freedom of religion can exist if the
state religion grants
religious toleration to all other religions and denominations.
Often it's the alleged
persecution of individuals within a group in the attempt to maintain their religion identity, or the exercise of power by an individual or organization that causes members of a religious group to suffer. Persecution in this case may refer to confiscation or destruction of property, incitement to hate, arrest, imprisonment, beatings, torture, and execution.
Denial of benefits and denial of certain civil rights and liberties are less severe, and are either described as mild forms of religious persecution or as
religious discrimination. There clearly is a difference between denying a religious group tax-exempt status and threatening them with imprisonment.
Religious persecution and ethnicity
Other acts of violence, such as
war,
torture, and
ethnic cleansing might not necessarily be aimed at religion. Populations that belong to different
ethnic groups often also belong to different religions or denominations. Although the difference between religious and ethnical identity might sometimes be obscure (see:
Ethnoreligious), the infamous cases of
Genocide of the 20th century couldn't be explained by religious differences.
The most infamous case of
antisemitism in the 20th century, the systematic
mass murder of millions of European
Jews by the
Nazis, wasn't religious persecution, since the Nazis persecuted the Jews as a race, not as a religion.
The Shoah made no distinction between secular Jews, atheistic Jews,
orthodox Jews and Jews that had converted to Christianity. Only the
persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany can be seen as religious persecution; About 12,000 of them were arrested. However, they were given the opportunity to renounce their faith and pledge to support the war in order to avoid being incarcerated. (For more information see the article
Religion in Nazi Germany).
Reasons for religious persecution
The descriptive use of the term religious persecution is rather difficult. Religious persecution has taken place a least since the
Persecution of early Christians in the Roman Empire, and has happened in completely different historical, geographical and social contexts, but nevertheless, some generalizations are necessary.
In the
Western world our now common rejection of religious persecution originated in 17th century England. The English 'Call for Toleration' was the turning point in the
Christian debate on religious persecution. This time has been debated thoroughly by historians, whereas, for the obvious reason of the over-abundance of material, historians generally avoid writing books on the whole of human history.
The most ambitious chronicle of that time is
W.K.Jordans magnum opus The Development of Religious Toleration in England, 1558-1660 (four volumes, published 1932-1940). Jordan wrote as the thread of
fascism rose in Europe, and this work is seen as a defence of the fragile
values of
humanism and
tolerance.
The demand for religious uniformity
The legal
Separation of Church and State is a modern phenomenon. In modern western
civil law any citizen may join and leave a religious organisation at will, but this understanding of
religious toleration as civil toleration only emerged a few centuries ago. By contrast, in
early modern Europe the subjects were required to attend the
state church; This attitude can be described as
territoriality or
religious uniformity, and its underlying assumption is brought to a point by a statement of the Anglican theologian
Richard Hooker: "There isn't any man of the Church of England but the same man is also a member of the [English] commonwealth; nor any man a member of the commonwealth, which isn't also of the Church of England."
Before a vigorous debate about religious persecution took place in England (starting in the 1640s), for centuries in Europe, religion had been tied to territory. In England there had been several
Acts of Uniformity; in continental Europe the Latin phrase "
cuius regio, eius religio" had been used. Persecution meant that the state was committed to secure religious uniformity by coercive measures, as eminently obvious in a statement of
Roger L'Estrange: "That which you call persecution, I translate Uniformity".
However, in the 17th century writers like
John Locke,
Richard Overton and Roger William broke the link between territory and faith, which eventually resulted in a shift from territoriality to religious voluntarism. It was Locke, who, in his
Letter Concerning Toleration defined the state in purely secular terms:
"The commonwealth seems to me to be a society of men constituted only for the procuring, preserving, and advancing their own civil interests." Concerning the church, he went on:
"A church, then, I take to be a voluntary society of men, joining themselves together of their own accord."
Civil tolerance and ecclesiastical tolerance
This isn't only the core of the concept of the
Separation of Church and State, and thus the intellectual basis of the
Secular state, this is also relevant for
Christian debate on persecution and toleration. Whereas
civil tolerance allows each group of believers to form their own congregation, the degree of diversity tolerated within a particular church falls under the concept of
ecclesiastical tolerance. The New Testament is rather strict regarding dissent within the Church. Not having the notion of separation of church and state at their disposal (or not accepting it), Christian theologians like
Joseph Hall could reason from the ecclesiastical intolerance of the early Christian church in the
New Testament to the civil intolerance of the Christian state.
Persecution for heresy and blasphemy
In Protestant England six people were executed for heresy or blasphemy during the reign of
Elizabeth I of England, and two more in 1612 under
James I of England.
See also:
Christian heresy,
Heresy in Orthodox JudaismPersecution for political reasons
More than 300 Roman Catholics were put to death by English governments between 1535 and 1681 for treason, thus for secular than religious offences. In 1570,
Pope Pius V had issued the bull
Regnans in Excelsis, which absolved Catholics from their obligations to the government. This dramatically worsened the situation of the Catholics in England. English governments continued to fear
Popish Plot. An English act of government from the year 1585 declared that the purpose of
Jesuit missionaries who had come to Britain was " to stir up and move sedition, rebellion and open hostility". Consequently Jesuit priests like
Saint John Ogilvie were hanged. This somehow contrasts with the image of the
Elizabethan era as the time of
William Shakespeare, but compared to the antecedent
Marian Persecutions there's an important difference to consider.
Mary I of England had been motived by a religious zeal to purge heresy from her land, and during her short reign from 1553 to 1558 about 290 Protestants had been burned at the stake for heresy, whereas
Elizabeth I of England "acted out of fear for the security of her realm."
Contemporary
Although his book was written before the
September 11 attacks, John Coffey explicitly compares the English fear of a
Popish Plot with the contemporary
Islamophobia in the
Western world. Among the Muslims imprisoned in the
Guantanamo Bay detention camp there also were
Mehdi Ghezali and
Murat Kurnaz who couldn't have been found to have any connections with terrorism, but had travelled to
Afghanistan and
Pakistan because of their religious interests.
Historical persecution
Out of
Egypt, according to Jewish tradition, came monotheistic
Judaism, under
Moses, one of its prophets. Among the
Ten Commandments of that religion was one that forbade the worship of any other god than
Yahweh. When
Imperial Rome extended its reach to their area, various conflicts arose.
Out of
Judaism came
Christianity, which because it was monotheistic and also encouraged conversion was a much more powerful threat to the established pantheistic order than had been Judaism. The Jewish exemption from the requirement to participate in public cults was lifted and the anti-monotheistic religious persecution of the Christians began under
Nero.
By the eighth century Christianity had attained a clear ascendancy in Europe and neighboring regions and a period of consolidation began marked by the pursuit of heretics and various other forms of monotheistic religious persecution. Christian monotheistic religious persecution perhaps reached its apex with the
Inquisition.
Meanwhile south and east of the Christian empires yet another monotheist religion had arisen:
Islam. Generally following the Jewish tradition of tolerance towards non-believers provided they maintained the outward habits of believers, Muslims spread across northern
Africa, the
Middle East, northern
India, and adjoining regions.
» See also: Historical persecution by Christians, Persecution of Ancient Greek religion, Persecution of Christians.
Present Period
Since the 18th century there have been many occasions where religious persecution has occurred.
Bahá'ís in Iran
Seal of the prophets, and that there will be no other prophets after him. "This attitude serves to explain the extreme Muslim animosity toward Bahais," followers of
Bahá'u'lláh (1844 - 1921), who they believe to be the most recent
messenger from God.
Bahá'ís and various third party entities such as the
United Nations,
Amnesty International, the
European Union, the
United States and peer-reviewed academic literature have stated that the members of the Bahá'í community in Iran, the nation of origin of the
Bahá'í Faith, Iran's largest religious minority and the location of one of the largest Bahá'í populations in the world, have been subjected to unwarranted arrests, false imprisonment, beatings, torture, unjustified executions, confiscation and destruction of property owned by individuals and the Bahá'í community, denial of employment, denial of government benefits, denial of civil rights and liberties, and denial of access to higher education.
More recently, in the later months of 2005, an intensive anti-Bahá'í campaign was conducted by Iranian newspapers and radio stations. The state-run and influential
Kayhan newspaper, whose
managing editor is appointed by Iran's supreme leader,
Ayatollah Khamenei (External Link
), ran nearly three dozen articles defaming the Bahá'í Faith. The articles, which make use of fake historical documents, engage in a distortion of history to falsely describe Bahá'í moral principles in a manner that would be offensive to Muslims, thus inducing feelings of suspicion, distrust and hatred to members of the Bahá'í community in Iran.
(External Link).
Furthermore, a confidential letter sent on
October 29 2005 by the Chairman of the Command Headquarters of the Armed Forced in Iran states that the Supereme Leader of Iran,
Ayatollah Khamenei has instructed the Command Headquarters to identify people who adhere to the Bahá'í Faith and to monitor their activiters and gather any and all information about the members of the Bahá'í Faith. The letter was brought to the attention of the international community by Asma Jahangir, the
Special Rapporteur of the
United Nations Commission on Human Rights on freedom of religion or belief, in a
March 20,
2006 press release
(External Link).
In the press release the Special Rapporteur states that she "is highly concerned by information she's received concerning the treatment of members of the Bahá'í community in Iran." She further states that "The Special Rapporteur is concerned that this latest development indicates that the situation with regard to religious minorities in Iran is, in fact, deteriorating."
(External Link).
Bahá'ís are also being persecuted in Egypt.
(External Link)
State Atheism
People's Republic of China
The government of
People's Republic of China in mainland
China has banned the spiritual group
Falun Gong and has conducted a massive crackdown on the group, including using torture and "re-education" camps to force its adherents to abandon Falun Gong. There are reports indicating that the PRC has engaged in
organ harvesting from live Falun Gong adherents, among other
human rights abuses.The people whom practice this religion are harassed and tormented when found by the government for practicing the religion.
Albania
The trend toward
state atheism in
Albania was taken to an extreme during the
totalitarian regime, when religions, identified as imports foreign to Albanian culture, were banned altogether. This policy was mainly applied and felt within the borders of the present Albanian state, thus producing a
nonreligious majority in the population. As the literary monthly "Nëndori" reported, the youth had thus "created the first
Atheist nation in the world." From 1967 until the end of the totalitarian regime, religious practices were banned and the country was proclaimed officially
Atheist, marking an event that happened for the first time in world history. Albanians born during the regime were never taught religion, so they grew up to become either Atheists or
Agnostics. Although, now with Albania allowing the rights of individuals to practice religion, many Albanians have rekindled their beliefs in public and have admitted to practising religious ceremonies in secret during that time. Albanians that have fled from Albania during that time continued with their faith and have influenced a revival of religion back in Albania.
Quotes
- "I have come from a country where people are hanged if they talk." — Leonhard Euler
- "Religious persecution has come about because others are too afraid to learn about something new..." — Zachary Jensen
- "No orthodox church ever had power that it didn't endeavor to make people think its way by force and flame. And yet every church that ever was established commenced in the minority, and while it was in the minority advocated free speech -- every one. John Calvin, the founder of the Presbyterian Church, while he lived in France, wrote a book on religious toleration in order to show that all men had an equal right to think; and yet that man afterward, clothed in a little authority, forgot all his sentiments about religious liberty, and had poor Serviettes burned at the stake, for differing with him on a question that neither of them knew anything about. In the minority, Calvin advocated toleration -- in the majority, he practiced murder." — Robert Green Ingersoll.
Literature
John Coffey (2000), Persecution and Toleration in Protestant England 1558-1689, Studies in modern History, Pearson Education Further Information
Get more info on 'Religious Persecution'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://religious_persecution.totallyexplained.com">Religious persecution Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
