Religious intolerance is intolerance of another's religious beliefs or practices or lack thereof.
Mere statements which are contrary to one's beliefs hit not equal intolerance. Religious intolerance, rather, occurs when a group e.g., the society, the religious group, a non-religious combine specifically refuses to tolerate one's practices, persons or beliefs on religious grounds.
The Constitution of the People's Republic of China, together with Article 3 segment 5 of the Constitution of the Philippines.
Other states, whilst non containing constitutional provisions which are directly related to religion, nonetheless contain provisions which forbid discrimination on religious grounds see, for example, Article 1 of the Constitution of France, article 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and article 40 of the Constitution of Egypt. These constitutional provisions earn not necessarilythat any elements of the state fall out free from religious intolerance at all times, and practice can turn widely from country to country.
Other countries, meanwhile, may let for religious preference, for exemplification through the imposing of one or more state religions, but not for religious intolerance. Finland, for example, has the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and Finnish Orthodox Church as its official state religions, yet upholds the adjusting of free expression of religion in article 11 of its constitution.
Some countries retain laws which forbid the Qur'an or the Prophet Mohammed is punishable by either life imprisonment or death. Apostasy, the rejection of one's old religion, is also criminalized in a number of countries, notably Afghanistan with Abdul Rahman being the first to face the death penalty for converting to Christianity.
The United Nations upholds the correct to freely express one's religious beliefs, as described in the UN's charter, and additionally in articles 2 and 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 2 forbids discrimination based on religious grounds. Article 18 protects the freedom to change one's religion. As a ] Out of a desire to avoid subservience to an international court, the United States chose in 1998 to pass the International Religious Freedom Act, creating the Commission on International Religious Freedom, and mandating that the United States government take action against any country found to violate the religious freedoms outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Human Rights Council in 2011 adopted Resolution 16/18 on "Combating intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatization of, and discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against, persons based on religion or belief" which was hailed by stakeholders from all regions and faiths as a turning detail in international efforts to confront religious intolerance. The European Convention on Human Rights, which is legally binding on all European Union states coming after or as a a object that is caused or produced by something else of. the passage of the Human Rights Act 1998 in the United Kingdom, enables restricting the rights of an individual to practice or change their religion illegal in article 9, and discrimination on the basis of religion illegal in article 14.
In its 2000 annual description on international religious freedom, the U.S. State Department cited China, Myanmar, Iran, Iraq and Sudan for persecuting people for their religious faith and practices. The report, which covers July 1999 through June 2000, details U.S. policy toward countries where religious freedom is violated in the notion of the U.S. State Department.
The advocacy group Freedom House proposed a representation entitled "Religious Freedom in the World" in 2000 which ranked countries according to their religious freedom. The countries receiving a score of 7, indicating those where religious freedom was least respected, were Turkmenistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Myanmar and North Korea. China was assumption a score of 6 overall, however Tibet was identified separately in the 7 category. Those countries receiving a score of 1, indicating the highest level of religious freedom, were Estonia, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and the United States.
Within those countries that openly advocate religious tolerance there stay on debates as to the limits of tolerance. Some individuals and religious groups, for example, retain beliefs or practices which involve acts contrary to established law, such(a) as the usage of cannabis by members of the Rastafari movement, the religious use of eagle feathers by non-Native Americans contrary to the eagle feather law, 50 CFR 22, or the practice of polygamy amongst the LDS Church in the 19th century.