Religious freedom around the world appears to be on the downswing. Perhaps it only appears that way because we haven't in the past, paid as much attention to the phenomenon as we now do, with the advent of Islamic jihadism which proclaims its sacred right to believe, and to act upon, that Islam and the law of shariah represent the only true religion, all others are subordinate and false.
As a result of which any society that isn't an rigidly Islamic one is fair game for jihadist onslaught with the resulting slaughter of infidels, non-believers, and apostates.
When it comes to freedom of religion, the freedom offered by a singular state to its citizens to worship as they see fit, countries of the West, democratic countries in particular, rate high on the permissively freedom-of-religion rating, while invariably, those religiously intolerant countries that rate low are recognized as Muslim countries, most particularly those that are not secular in nature, although Muslim in religion, but rather Islamic-ruled.
Which is no big surprise, given the last few years of history-in-the-making and all its attendant horrors.
The world has seen a mass exodus of Christians and other minority religious groups from countries of the Muslim world, as religious positions harden and polemical harangues increase. The irony is that in the very corner of the ancient world where Christianity first emerged as a religious world-force of two millennia-duration, the exodus is accelerating in the wake of hostile and sometimes murderous backlash to their presence in the Middle East.
Communities which were once the mainstay of the religion, recognized as being the cradle of the faith have long bled their constituents through the hostile pressures of intolerance in a mainly Muslim world which harbours anger and resentment against Christianity as a symbol of the West and its lack of moral and social values, alongside its capitalistic focus. A Western culture and tradition which it insists has usurped the rightful place of Islam as a world force.
On the other hand, enlightened Western countries have their own problems with respect to religious tolerance, being suspicious of cults and suspect religious movements that appear counter to the best interests of a civil and free society. There's a reliable yardstick that pertains to ideologies or movements that pose a threat to the peace and freedoms within democratic societies that ensure they will not quietly accept the presence of such forces.
Which sets the problem apart from that of a deliberately and fiercely antagonistic religious movement like militant Islam whose purpose and intent is to destabilize and bring fear of terror to populations within countries who have no intention of doing likewise to those countries where Islam prevails as the determining religious force.
In the West, governments create agencies to promote against the perceived harms of cults or suspect religious groups operating within their societies, and they enact laws for the protection of their populations. A civil response to a problem of people being manipulated or victimized by a tolerated ideological/religious presence. The presence of Jehovah's Witnesses, Pentecostals, Church of Scientology and the Unification Church remain irritants.
Bearing no resemblance whatever to the hounding and victimization of those deemed religious heretics by an overbearingly militant jihadist entity, be they viciously para-military or government sponsored religion-cleansing authorities.
The results and impacts of growing intolerance toward differences in ideology and religion can be seen most clearly in violence-wracked countries like Iraq and the Palestinian territories where law and order are close to absent and religious sectarian strife are front and centre in a geography where tribal cultures, hard-core religious observance, a history and culture of violent revenge intertwine.
Islamism is growing exponentially, tainting a once moderately-tolerant mass of people from the Middle East to the far East, to Africa. Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nigeria, among many others are joining the fold of the increasingly intolerant, where governments discover it's becoming more difficult to control radical Islamists.
As a result ongoing threats, church burnings, physical attacks and deaths are resulting in populations that were once able to live together sociably and amicably, recognizing, but not resenting their differences.
Labels: Religion, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, July 08, 2007
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