Religious persecution still exists throughout the world, affecting people of all religions.
A protest at a Chinese embassy advocating for freedom of religion for Tibetan Buddhists and Uyghur Muslims. futureatlas.com. CC BY 2.0.
In April 2021, the United States announced that it would withdraw all troops from Afghanistan. In his reasoning to withdraw, President Joe Biden said that it is “the right and responsibility of the Afghan people alone to decide their future”. That future, however, is compromised as the Taliban quickly took over the country and imposed laws that undermine the rights of women and religious minorities.
Religious minorities in Afghanistan have “faced harassment, detention and even death due to their beliefs”, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The commission has recommended Afghanistan be included in the State Department’s list of “countries of particular concern” in terms of religious liberty. Many Jewish, Hindu and Sikh Afghans have been forced to flee the country and Ahmadiyya Muslims, Baha’i’s and Christians have been worshiping in secret in fear of persecution.
While many people think that the world is now much more enlightened than before, religious persecution is not a practice of the past. Conflicts are still being fought over religion. Religion is the key of freedom of conscience, which makes up a key part of the human being. Totalitarian regimes, that attempt to claim the whole person, are intent on suppressing religion, with controlling the individual as the end goal. However, religious persecution is not just limited to authoritarian states, as a 2018 report claims that harassment of religious groups occurs in 90% of all countries.
With authoritarian regimes on the rise in countries like China, religion is being suppressed there. In China, Xi Jinping is embarking on a campaign against religion in general and sending countless Uyghur, Kazakh and Kyrgyz Muslims to concentration camps. In addition, the Chinese government is trying to impose forced assimilation of Tibetan Buddhists and closed many Protestant churches.
Though officially a secular democracy, Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, and his Hindu nationalist party the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has led a fierce anti-Muslim campaign in India. The Indian government has recently moved to limit the rights of Muslims, including a new law that allows for fast-tracked citizenship of non-Muslim immigrants from nearby countries. There has also been an increase in violence against Muslims in India during Modi’s time in office.
Religious persecution in India is not just limited to Muslims, however. Christians are also facing animosity in India. Hindus are committing violence against Christians under the pretext of the country’s anti-conversion law, which prohibits missionary activity. To Hindu nationalists, the notion that some Hindus are willing to convert to Christianity throws a dent in their plans for a purely Hindu nation. The only problem is, that the Christians under the threat of vigilante violence are not engaging in conversions. Instead, the anti-conversion law is used as an excuse to justify violence against Christian communities in India.
There are countless other examples of religious persecution around the world that are not getting much attention. According to Open Doors, an organization that advocates for persecuted Christians, more than 360 million Christians across 76 countries suffer high levels of discrimination, with Christians in the Middle East and Africa under particular threat. In Kenya, six Christians were killed in early 2022 by Al-Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda aligned terrorist group. Even in Uganda, where 82% of the population is Christian, a Muslim hanged his wife and children in January 2022 because they converted to Christianity.
Even Western countries, which are generally considered more tolerant, are not bereft of instances of religious persecution. France in recent years instituted a “burqa ban”, prohibiting some people from wearing their religious garments. While some justified the ban as an embrace of secularism and public safety, France also instituted a compulsory mask mandate during the Coronavirus pandemic without reversing the “burqa ban”, showing that Islamophobia was the driving force behind the ban.
These instances of religious persecution are a direct affront to human rights. Article 18 of the United Nation Universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes the freedom of religion to be a fundamental human right. While the world may not be the most tolerant place currently, there are numerous organizations and individuals working to change that.
To Get Involved
There are plenty of organizations that fight for religious freedom around the world. The Religious Freedom Institute is working to convince stakeholders around the world that religious freedom can help them achieve their goals. The International Association for Religious Freedom promotes the work of individuals fighting for religious freedom. Other organizations advocating for religious tolerance can be found here.
Bryan Fok
Bryan is currently a History and Global Affairs major at the University of Notre Dame. He aims to apply the notion of Integral Human Development as a framework for analyzing global issues. He enjoys hiking and visiting national parks.