Religious persecution

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Template:Religious persecution Religious persecution is the persecution of individuals within a group in the struggle to maintain their religious identity, or the abuse of power by an individual or organization that causes members of a religious group to suffer. Persecution in this case may refer to unwarranted arrest, false imprisonment, beatings, torture, unjustified execution, denial of benefits, and denial of civil rights and liberties. It also may refer to the confiscation or destruction of property, or incitement to hate among other things.

1 Historical persecution
2 Present Period
3 Quotes
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

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Historical persecution

Out of Egypt came monotheistic Judaism under Moses, its prophet. Among the ten commandments of the new religion was one that forbade absolutely any show of respect for any other god than its one true god. When Imperial Rome extended its reach to their area, various conflicts arose.

Out of Judaism came Christianity, which because it was strictly 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. Those who actively oppose Islam or try to persuade people in their community not to convert to Islam may face persecution or death threats (which may even be carried out). At times, attempts at peaceful persuasion against Islam has lead to persecution.

See also: Historical persecution by Christians, Historical persecution by Muslims, Persecution of Ancient Greek religion

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Present Period

Since the 18th century there have been many occasions where religious persecution has occurred.

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Bahá'ís in Iran

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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 [1] newspaper, whose managing editor is appointed by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei [2], 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. [3].

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 indentify people who adhere to the Bahá'í Faith and to moniter 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 [4].

In the press release the Special Rapporteur states that she "is highly concerned by information she has 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."

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Judaism

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United States and Islam

Some people believe that both the United States and Al Qaida are involved in religious persecution. The September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States have been suspected by religious figures of happening because of America's relative secularity; though, it should be noted that Al Qaida never once in their public statements used that as a justification for 9/11 or any other attack. The reasons Al Qaida give for their attacks are the presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia, the cradle of Islam, which they consider sacrilege and occupation of Muslim territory, and the support by the United States of Israel. Christian churches have been bombed in Pakistan and there have been attempted attacks on churches elsewhere. Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Istanbul in Turkey etc have been attacked, mainly because these governments are seen by the extremists to be collaborating with foreign non-Islamic powers.

On the other hand, shortly after September 11 there was a sharp increase of Islamophobia in the United States and the United Kingdom, where Muslims are sometimes attacked in public or even killed [5]. The 21st century "War on terror" was at one point referred to as a "crusade" until the Muslim understanding of the term was pointed out, and abuses by American soldiers during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 (e.g. the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse) made some Muslims felt that they were being persecuted, therefore giving rise to anti-American feelings, coordinated attacks by extremist Islamic groups and insurgency in the Middle East. However, this so-called "Islamophobia" was not given governmental sanction in the USA, unlike religious oppression in countries such as Afghanistan when it was dominated by the Taliban and served as a center of Al Qaeda operations.

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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

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