Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group of individuals as a response to their religious beliefs or affiliations or lack thereof.
The tendency of societies or groups within society 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.
Religious persecution may be triggered by religious bigotry (i.e. the denigration of practitioners' religions other than those of the oppressors) or by the State when it views a particular religious group as a threat to its interests or security. At a societal level, this dehumanization of a particular religious group may readily turn into violence or other forms of persecution. Indeed, in many countries, religious persecution has resulted in so much violence that it is considered a human rights problem.
Read more about Religious Persecution: Forms, Cases
Other articles related to "religious persecution, religious, persecution, religious persecutions, persecutions":
... it derived income, closing monasteries and seminaries, levying high taxes, and introducing anti-religious propaganda into schools and the media ... not of a mass nature, were used in order to terrify the religious leaders ... Children, who no longer learned religion in school, obtained religious instruction privately ...
... all the forces which tried to destroy it." Godfrey Mwakikagile, Persecution of the Serer people of Senegal, the Gambia and Mauritania is multifaceted, and include both religious and ethnic elements ... Religious and ethnic persecution of the Serer people dates back to the 11th century when King War Jabi usurped the throne of Tekrur (part of present-day ... Persecution of the Serer people continued from the medieval era to the 19th century, resulting in the Battle of Fandane-Thiouthioune ...
... Clanranald estates, suffered grievously from the Highland Clearances and also religious persecution at the hands of the Clanranald chief ... others living on the Clanranald estates also suffered from religious persecution at the hands of their own chief ... arrived immigrants however did not immediately escape religious persecution as Catholics were barred from holding land until 1780 ...
... When the religious persecutions which followed the suppression of the Fitzgeralds began, Bourke incurred the enmity of the government by his open avowal of the ... During the short lull in the persecutions he openly attended Divine Service at St ... On the renewal of the persecutions, Sir John was summoned to answer a charge of recusancy and was put into prison ...
... The prospect of religious persecution by authorities of the crown and the Church of England prompted a significant number of colonization efforts ... People fleeing persecution by King Charles I were responsible for settling most of New England, and the Province of Maryland was founded in part to be a haven for Roman ...
Famous quotes containing the words persecution and/or religious:
“That diabolical Hell conceived principle of persecution rages among some [people] and to their eternal Infamy the clergy can furnish their Quota of Imps for such business.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“It is a sign of our times, conspicuous to the coarsest observer, that many intelligent and religious persons withdraw themselves from the common labors and competitions of the market and the caucus, and betake themselves to a certain solitary and critical way of living, from which no solid fruit has yet appeared to justify their separation.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)