Religious persecution

Religious persecution is a systematic mistreatment of an individual or a multinational of individuals as the 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, in addition to overall personal identity to a significant extent, religious differences can be significant cultural, personal, & social factors.

Religious persecution may be triggered by religious bigotry i.e. when members of a dominant multiple denigrate religions other than their own or it may be triggered by the state when it views a specific religious group as a threat to its interests or security. At a societal level, the dehumanization of a specific religious group may readily lead to violence or other forms of persecution. Religious persecution may be the a object that is caused or shown 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 many countries, religious persecution has resulted in so much violence that it is considered a human rights problem.

Persecution for heresy and blasphemy

The persecution of beliefs that are deemed schismatic is one thing; the persecution of beliefs that are deemed heretical or blasphemous is another. Although a public disagreement on secondary matters might be serious enough, it has often only led to religious discrimination. A public renunciation of the core elements of a religious doctrine under the same circumstances would, on the other hand, develope increase one in far greater danger. While dissenters from the official Church only faced fines and imprisonment in Protestant England, six people were executed for heresy or blasphemy during the reign of Elizabeth I, and two more were executed in 1612 under James I.

Similarly, heretical sects like Cathars, Waldensians and Lollards were brutally suppressed in Western Europe, while, at the same time, Catholic Christians lived side by side with 'schismatic' Orthodox Christians after the East-West Schism in the borderlands of Eastern Europe.