In spite of UN declarations on religious freedom, there is still massive room for
improvement in some countries.
Wars: Religious intolerance is a driving force behind many of the world's armed
conflicts and centers of civil unrest. A few current and recent conflicts are listed below:
Protestants vs. Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland
Muslims, vs. Serbian Orthodox Christians in Kosovo
Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Middle East
Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and Sikhs in India
Christians and Muslims in East Timor
Christians and Muslims and Animists in Nigeria
Christians and Muslims in the southern Philippine islands
Missionaries: Religious missionaries are severely persecuted
in some areas of the world. Most victims are Christians; most
perpetrators are national governments.
Conversion: Some countries have declared that a religious conversion from the
state religion to another belief system is a criminal act, sometimes punishable by death.
These laws are most frequently found in Muslim countries, although they are very
rarely applied.
Overview: Robert Seiple of the U.S. State Department reported to a
congressional hearing on 1999-OCT-6 on religious freedom around the world. Unfortunately, the report
did not include religious abuses inside the U.S. They found that seven
countries exhibited "particularly severe" violations of
religious freedom over the last year:
Afghanistan's previous government, led by the Taliban, persecuted and killed
Shiite Muslims in programs of mass murder that meet some definitions of
genocide. The police often impose "severe physical
punishment and imprisonment for deviations from codes of worship and
dress."
Myanmar (Burma) has imprisoned Buddhist monks who promote human and
political rights.
China suppresses unregistered religious activity "through
harassment, prolonged detention and incarceration in prison or
'reform-through-labor' camps." 4
Iran seriously persecutes the Baha'i Faith by
imprisonment of its members, denial of the right to assemble, and
confiscating or desecrating their holy places.
Iraq arbitrarily imprisons, and murders some individuals
from their Shi'a Muslim
minority.
Serbia's government (primarily composed of Serbian Orthodox
Christians) killed, tortured, raped and forced the emigration of ethnic
Albanians (mostly Muslims) in Kosovar.
Sudan's government has engaged in killing, arbitrary
imprisonment, violence, and forced conversions of members of minority
faiths, including Christianity, Aboriginal religions, and minority
Muslim groups. 1,2
The Religious Freedom Act requires the President to react to this report by
selecting "from 15 policy responses that range from private diplomatic
protest to economic sanctions."
We have prepared a review of religious intolerance in
various countries. It is not intended to be complete or balanced. It is a random sampling
of some of the most important events that have been covered in the media in recent years.
The wall of separation between church and state does not
prevent judges and legislators from attempting to eliminate the rights of faith groups
that they do not like:
In 1986, Senator Jessie Helms (R, NC) introduced a bill in Congress to remove tax exempt
status from existing Wiccan groups and prevent any new groups
from being recognized. It never made it out of committee.
Family court judges in the U.S. and Canada occasionally discriminate in custody matters
against the parent of minority, high demand faith groups, such as Jehovah's Witnesses.
Various attempts have been made to modify the constitution in order to permit
prayer in the public schools. This would have students recite
prayers of the dominant religion. Students who follow minority religions would be given
the options of either violating their own beliefs or risk later harassment and violence
from other students.
Society has made much progress in the past few decades:
With the repeal of oppressive laws, Native Americans are now
able to conduct their traditional ceremonies.
The exclusion of Jews from membership in golf clubs and
similar organizations is much less common than in the past.
A person no longer has to believe in the existence of a personal deity in order to be a
conscientious objector to military service. (However, the Canadian government only extends
charitable status to religious groups if they teach a belief in a God.)
Some local ministerial organizations now include non-Christians.
J.F. Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic President of the US. The religious faith of
the Prime Ministers of Canada seemed to be of little interest to anyone prior to
2006. The Evangelical Christian faith of the present Prime Minister, Stephen
Harper, is of considerably greater interest to the media.
Ritual consumption of peyote during some Native American rituals is permitted.
Native Elders are now generally given the same rights as Christian and Jewish clergy
during prison visits.
Roman Catholic children are no longer taught that Protestants will go to eternal
punishment in hell when they die; most Protestant children are
no longer told that all Roman Catholics will automatically go to hell.
Atheists were denied certain fundamental rights
be the constitutions of some States. They were
restricted from holding office, or serving as a witness or juror at a trial.
Fortunately, a U.S. Supreme Court decision in
1961 made such bigoted restrictions null and void. Still no Atheist who is
open about their beliefs could reasonably expect to be elected to any political office
because of prejudice.
Children are occasionally seized from homes because of some social workers'
misunderstanding of their parents' religion.
Parents are denied access to their children because of some judges' beliefs about the
parents' faith.
Leaders of some faith groups (e.g. Neopagan) are not
recognized as clergy during prison visitation
Some faith groups are not allowed to perform marriages. A common method of exclusion is
for state or provincial governments to require the group to have been in existence for
long periods before their clergy can marry people.
The Socialist premier of the province of British Columbia in Canada refused on religious
grounds to authorize election papers for a candidate of a minority faith who was nominated for the Provincial
Legislature. Threatened with a lawsuit that he could not possibly win, he apologized for
his act of bigotry.
Followers of certain faiths are only able to celebrate their rituals safely in certain
areas of North America. They fear persecution and attacks by Christians who misunderstand
their benign, Earth-based faith. These include
Wiccans,
Druids, and other
Neopagans. Much of this
hatred is based upon a beliefs held over from the Middle Ages.
Representative Barr and a coalition of about a dozen conservative
Christian agencies promoted a boycott of the
U.S. army in an effort to terminate the religious freedoms of Neopagans.
Religious tolerance does not seem to be heavily promoted in North America. Although
there are untold numbers of:
anti-racism Web sites devoted to racial harmony and tolerance,
anti-sexism Web sites devoted to equal rights for women,
anti-homophobia Web sites devoted to equal rights for gays, lesbians and bisexuals,
A few more detailed examples might be useful. The following are not presented as a
complete or balanced list. Rather, it consists of just a few examples that we have
stumbled across:
Television: This is a major source of intolerance. Vision TV's
"Mosaic"
service in Canada features "paid time programs from a variety of faith groups and
broadcast ministries". Because Vision broadcasts programs from all types of
religions and faith groups, one can differentiate between those groups which are
relatively free from hatred and misinformation from those which often exhibit intolerance.
We have been given access to data collected by the Wiccan Information Network's
Ontario Coordinator. He found that of approximately 35 episodes in the mid 1990's that
included vicious religious intolerance:
3% originated from a non-Christian program (An Islamic program targeting secularists)
0% originated from main-line or liberal Christian programs
97% originated from Evangelical or Fundamentalist Christian programs. Targets were (in
decreasing order of frequency) followers of non-Christian religions, homosexuals,
followers of non-Evangelical Christian religions, political liberals, working mothers,
etc.
Some of this intolerance is quite repulsive, and included:
a call for the U.S. Federal Government to exterminate all followers of a specific faith group
a statement that the leaders of a certain religion were plotting to kill all of
Christian leaders in America
a statement that it is the goal of Islam to give all Americans two
choices: to convert immediately to their religion or have your head chopped off
that followers of a particular faith group routinely torture and kill babies, and commit
other unspeakable crimes.
We find this result to be curious and self-defeating for conservative Christians. On
one hand, they are committed to fulfilling the Great Commission which is to preach
the Gospel to all the world. At the same time, they are broadcasting so much hatred
against various groups that many "non-believers" are becoming resistant to the
message.
A government regulatory body renewed Vision's license in the 1990s with the expectation that they
would reduce the amount of religious bigotry on its network. They seem to have cleaned up
their act in recent years.
Ritual Abuse Seminars We attended a ritual abuse seminar in 1995-MAY and
have analyzed the messages delivered at two others. Groups named by the seminar leaders as
ritual abusers and murderers of children include:
members of a men's fraternal organization;
members of small Christian, Jewish, and Pagan religious groups;
persons who lead 12 step, mutual-support and self-help groups ;
criminal gangs.
None of this is true. Ritual abuse of the type described
during the seminar simply does not exist. One form of ritual abuse, and even manslaughter,
does exist in North America. It happens during Christian exorcisms and typically results
in one death per year. However, all of the ritual abuse seminars that we have tracked do
not mention it; they only describe the non-existent varieties of ritual abuse.
Religious Books: Again, we have consulted the records of the
Wiccan
Information Network's Ontario Coordinator. He found that:
Religious dictionaries by main-line and liberal Christian authors contain some errors
when referring to Neopagan religions. However, these appear to
be honest mistakes and were caused by lack of familiarity with those faiths. 100% of the
authors responded to letters sent to them which explained their errors.
Many books by conservative Christian authors about Neopagan religions were heavily biased,
and contained a great deal of misinformation. All of the reviewed books that described
personal involvement by the authors with Satanic groups were clearly hoaxes. Presented as
a documentary expose of real events, they were clearly works of fiction. 5% of these
authors responded to letters sent to them.
Desecration of Cultural and Religious Heritage A photographer was traveling
through the four corners region in the US. This is the area where Colorado, New Mexico,
Arizona and Utah meet. He came across a troop of Mormon Boy Scouts with hammers and chisels who
were defacing centuries-old native petroglyphs (rock carvings) on a rock face. The
horrified photographer asked the troop leader why they were destroying priceless native
history. The leader replied that the Mormon church taught that the petroglyphs were Pagan
symbols of Satanic origin. They felt that it was their religious duty to eliminate them
for all time.
Note: This action was a violation of the behavioral rules of the
Boy
Scouts Association rules and of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The
example is not meant to criticize either organization, but was intended to show how
members of groups misinterpret the rules of their own groups.
Attacks on Religious Leaders Singer Sinead O'Connor appeared on "Saturday
Night Live" on 1992-OCT-3, and sang a protest song which implied that victims of
racism, child abuse and other forms of victimization have a legitimate right to fight back
by any means, including war. At the end of the song, she held up a photograph of Pope John
II. She tore it into pieces, saying "Fight the real enemy."
References:
Religion Today news summary for 1999-OCT-7
"U.S. lists China among worst violators of religious freedom,"
Newsroom, 1999-OCT-7 at:
http://www.newsroom.org/
