Introduction
Discrimination is a negative attitude, bias, injustice, or deprivation of certain rights of people due to their national, racial and religious affiliation. Religious discrimination restricts people’s rights based on their religious affiliation. Discrimination is usually accompanied by religious stratification in several countries where several religious communities are represented. That is, communities have a higher or lower status concerning each other on the social ladder. The problem of discrimination is relevant in our modern society since, to this day, due to the existence of various confessions, interreligious conflicts occur, which are escalating every day.
The Reasons for Discrimination
Differences and Similarities
One of the reasons for people’s misunderstanding is that each religion dictates completely different ideas, positions, views, and beliefs. There are many religions and cults globally, and the largest number of adherents of six of these religions – are Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism. These religions have spread far from the places where they originated, and their followers today live worldwide. Before we start comparing these religions, I would also like to note that religion is understood as a belief system that helps people understand the world and the events taking place in it. As a result, some religions have significantly differed from one another (Beyers, 2017). In addition to the differences between religions, some similarities manifest in actions, performing certain rituals and celebrating religious holidays. The second reason for the people’s bias against each other is their internal beliefs, which affect the misinterpretation of religious requirements, leading to strife among people.
Myanmar Events
Many aspects of religious discrimination have increased since 2017; the residents of the state of Rakhine were subjected to unjust terror. Although Muslims are routinely investigated and arrested for terrorist activities, most prove innocent of wrongdoing. Muslim groups assert that two-thirds of those arrested for terrorism-related offenses are never charged, and only about 7% of prosecutions are successful (Fox, 2019). The political authorities did not take any measures to protect their people and ensure the integrity of the state. Many questions have arisen about the events taking place: what is the inaction of the military forces? Is it because the victim is Muslim, or do they have a similar attitude to all residents of Rakhine State? In their daily lives, many members of religious communities become victims of discrimination based on their belonging to a particular religion or belief. They are illegally restricted in the enjoyment of civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights. Under their membership in certain religious communities, their members are discriminated against in access to public education, health services, and public service. In the worst cases, some may be imprisoned or even killed because of their religion or beliefs.
Situations in Different Countries
In China, due to a broad government campaign to force the registration of religious groups, many religious leaders have been imprisoned and, in some cases, beaten. In Pakistan, Muslim mobs have destroyed Christian churches, and non-Muslims have been sentenced to death for blasphemy or “anti-Islam” (2020 report 2021). Germany was exhibiting animosity toward the Church of Scientology (Kent & Raine, 2017). This means that the government can check the mail of this organization, listen to telephone conversations and send its agents to the church meeting. In Sudan, the government continues its aggression against its opponents in the country’s southern regions, bombing villages, taking children into slavery, and torturing clerics, especially Christians. In Burma, the government is doing nothing to stop the riots and destruction of Muslim mosques and shops.
The Prohibition of Discrimination
Afghanistan and the Taliban Regime
Faced with mass displacement during the Afghan war, many found solidarity in the religious rhetoric of mujahideen resistance and opportunity in schools of Islamic sciences in southern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. Anyone who does not agree with their ideology, according to the Taliban, is misguided and subject to persecution. In the controlled territories, Sharia norms were introduced, the implementation of which is strictly controlled with the use of severe criminal penalties (Taliban). Moreover, soldiers order Muslims to convert to their religion or leave the country. It happened despite the prohibition of discrimination based on religious affiliation, which in one form or another is enshrined in the legislation of almost all countries of the world. At the same time, consolidation is carried out at the highest level – at the level of state constitutions.
The Constitutions Requirements
The vast majority of Islamic states enshrine equality of rights and freedoms of citizens and a ban on discrimination at the level of their constitutions, including those based on attitudes to religion. Such States include Iraq, Oman, Algeria, and Chad. However, only a few states in the world in which Islam is the official religion depart from the principle of equality of citizens based on religious affiliation. For example, according to the Tunisian Constitution, only a Muslim can be the President of Tunisia (Marshall, 2018). The same requirement is enshrined in the constitutions of Pakistan and Syria. In some Islamic countries, it is required that an oath be pronounced on the Koran when taking office. The above confirms the hypothesis that the very fact of fixing the principle of non-discrimination on religious grounds at the level of the state constitution does not mean that there is no discrimination in practice.
The State and Religious Organizations Relationships
Cooperative Model
To better understand conditions for the existence of discrimination based on religion in the modern world, it is necessary to have an idea of the basic models of relations between the state and religious organizations. There are three main world models of such relationships in Western Europe: cooperative, separation, and identification. The cooperative model assumes collaboration between the state and several religious organizations in the form of an association of activities in many spheres (Batalla & Baring, 2019). It is assumed that state bodies can optimally cooperate with selected confessions by having complete information about the public relations sphere and real levers of influence on religious associations. Thus, in Germany, religious associations have the status of a subject of public or private law (Batalla & Baring, 2019). The status of a subject of public law implies preferential taxation or even full exemption from taxes, the right to levy church taxes and the right to teach religion in public schools.
Separation and Identification
The separation model of state-confessional relations does not provide cooperation. Legal regulation of the creation, activity, and liquidation of religious associations, registration of religious associations, monitoring their compliance with legislation, and protection of the rights of believers and their associations. This model has historically developed in France, the Netherlands, and Ireland. The identification model depends on identifying the state and a religious institution; that is, every state must be based on faith in one God (Marshall, 2018). This model is present in the UK, Denmark, Greece, and Luxembourg. Christian theologians have developed three variants of state-church relations: caesaropapism (when the state acts on behalf of the church), papocesarism (when the church acts on behalf of the whole state), and a symphony of authorities.
Conclusion
Summing up, discrimination originated a very long time ago and has been developing for thousands of years. The existing religions and the confessional creeds underlying them are so diverse and contradictory that they often become a source of social tension, conflicts, and wars. Religious ideas are often used as a cover for modern terrorism, threatening the peace and security of humanity. Modern society has to face these challenges, which can be considered prosperous and healthy only when every individual has real guarantees of normal development and security.
References
Batalla, E., & Baring, R. (2019). Church-state separation and challenging issues concerning religion. Religions, 10(3), 197. Web.
Beyers, J. (2017). Religion and culture: Revisiting a close relative. HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies, 73(1). Web.
Fox, J. (2019). A world survey of secular-religious competition: state religious policy from 1990 to 2014. Religion, State & Society, 47(1), 10-29. Web.
Kent, S. A. (2017). Scientology in popular culture: Influences and struggles for legitimacy. Praeger, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC.
Marshall, P. (2018). The ambiguities of religious freedom in Indonesia. The Review of Faith & International Affairs, 16(1), 85-96. Web.
Taliban. (n.d.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Web.
2020 report on International Religious Freedom. Office of international religious freedom. (2021). Web.