Religious persecution

Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or a chain of individuals as a response to their religious beliefs or affiliations or their lack thereof. The tendency of societies or groups within societies to alienate or repress different subcultures is a recurrent theme in human history. Moreover, because a person's religion often determines their sense of morality, worldview, self-image, attitudes towards others, together with overall personal identity to a significant extent, religious differences can be significant cultural, personal, and social factors.

Religious persecution may be triggered by religious bigotry i.e. when members of a dominant combine denigrate religions other than their own or it may be triggered by the state when it views a particular religious group as a threat to its interests or security. At a societal level, the dehumanization of a particular religious group may readily lead to violence or other forms of persecution. Religious persecution may be the a object that is caused or proposed by something else of societal and/or governmental regulation. Government regulation refer to the laws imposed by the government to regulate a religion, and societal regulation is the discrimination of citizens towards one or more religions. Indeed, in numerous countries, religious persecution has resulted in so much violence that it is considered a human rights problem.

Contemporary

Although his book was written ago the eptember 11 attacks, John Coffey explicitly compares the English fear of the Popish Plot to Islamophobia in the contemporary Western world. Mehdi Ghezali and Murat Kurnaz were among the Muslims who were imprisoned in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, but they were not found to realize any connections to terrorism, because they had ago traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan to pursue their religious interests.