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I've read a number of posts that criticize the idea that Christians are persecuted in America and I've written a few myself. However, if you look at the entire world and all of the conflicts that are taking place in a great number of countries there's no question that people who are affiliated with a particular religion are in fact persecuted in many places. Human beings have this strange clannish tendency to persecute anyone who's different than they are. In modern western nations the most likely target of persecution is based on race and sometimes on religion as well, particularly if an individual is from a Muslim nation. The very worst offenders appear to be Muslim nations in which a person who decides that they want to convert to Christianity is literally risking their life. I also believe that half of the human race, namely women, are also persecuted by the most extreme elements of this religion.
Since I'm an American I can tell you that I don't feel the slightest bit of persecution by the fact that I'm an atheist. In my opinion the people who are still suffering the most from persecution in this nation are minority groups and gays and lesbians. I'm glad that racism in America has dwindled to the point that we finally have an African American President and his race wasn't even much of an issue in the election.
However, in places like Africa and the Middle East those long held prejudices are just as strong as they've ever been and many of them are based on religion. Africa has been a continent in which Christians and Muslims have competed to gain the most followers and from what I've read they have probably suffered more bloodshed than any other part of the world although the Middle East and South Asia are not far behind.
Of course the Jews have been persecuted probably more than any other group in history. I've never really understand why this is the case but it never seems to end.
OK, that's the end of this depressing OP but I'd like to hear some opinions about why we treat our fellow man the way that we do and why so many people find it completely acceptable and even necessary to do so.
It makes some of us feel better than others. Like a huge chip on our shoulder perhaps. As if we need to think we are better than someone else? This is why people normally criticize others - to make themselves feel or look better in the eyes of themselves or others.
Historically, religions have wanted to keep their breeding within themselves to keep the line strong and to not water-down the gene pool. The fact that a more diverse gene pool makes for a stronger race and more likely to survive any changing environmental factors is beyond their comprehension. Maybe it is really for another reason that no-one knows about?
I'll give a short simple answer as to why we treat our fellow man the way that we do; it's because of ignorance and intolerance. Ignorance because we do not know or care to know about the other persons belief or lack thereof, the thought that whatever religion or belief that we belong to is better than someone else's is the height of ignorance, because to be realistic, nobody knows for sure whether one belief is better than the other. Intolerance, because we don't care about the other persons belief and only care about ourselves and our belief.
I've read a number of posts that criticize the idea that Christians are persecuted in America and I've written a few myself. However, if you look at the entire world and all of the conflicts that are taking place in a great number of countries there's no question that people who are affiliated with a particular religion are in fact persecuted in many places. Human beings have this strange clannish tendency to persecute anyone who's different than they are. In modern western nations the most likely target of persecution is based on race and sometimes on religion as well, particularly if an individual is from a Muslim nation. The very worst offenders appear to be Muslim nations in which a person who decides that they want to convert to Christianity is literally risking their life. I also believe that half of the human race, namely women, are also persecuted by the most extreme elements of this religion.
Since I'm an American I can tell you that I don't feel the slightest bit of persecution by the fact that I'm an atheist. In my opinion the people who are still suffering the most from persecution in this nation are minority groups and gays and lesbians. I'm glad that racism in America has dwindled to the point that we finally have an African American President and his race wasn't even much of an issue in the election.
However, in places like Africa and the Middle East those long held prejudices are just as strong as they've ever been and many of them are based on religion. Africa has been a continent in which Christians and Muslims have competed to gain the most followers and from what I've read they have probably suffered more bloodshed than any other part of the world although the Middle East and South Asia are not far behind.
Of course the Jews have been persecuted probably more than any other group in history. I've never really understand why this is the case but it never seems to end.
OK, that's the end of this depressing OP but I'd like to hear some opinions about why we treat our fellow man the way that we do and why so many people find it completely acceptable and even necessary to do so.
The persecution started when Christianity came to power and became official then we got blamed for being the killers of Jesus. That doesn't make sense if he came to die for the sins. Seems like it was supposed to happen. But from that time came anti-antisemitism and it never seems to go away. the Jews seem to be the ones to get blamed when times get tough.
In per-person terms the most persecuted might be the Mandeans and Yezidi, both of Iraq. The Mandeans aren't Muslim and they believe Jesus was a bad guy. So they likely get no sympathy from either side. The Yezidi revere an angel who fell to Earth and is alternatively called "Shaitan." So they're deemed Satanists.
Two other groups that I think get a strong amount of persecution, perhaps even some real persecution in the US, are the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses. Mormons were traditionally disdained by most Christians for having heterodox views of the Trinity and a second religious book. The fact that they even have a second book seems to be generally more upsetting to Protestants, even lapsed Protestants I've seen, than Catholics as orthodox Protestantism really emphasizes that the Bible is it. Although the contents of the Book of Mormon, rather than its mere existence or reverence, has been mocked by many Catholics including me to an extent. Jehovah's Witnesses seemed to face most persecution for their rejection of nationalism, their evangelism, and to a lesser extent their views on blood transfusion. Several regimes require people to serve the military or take oaths to the state, things Jehovah's Witnesses won't do. JW's were one of the larger "voluntary" groups sent to Nazi death camps. By "voluntary" I mean JW's in many cases could have avoided the camps if they had just told Nazis what they wanted to hear. Jews, Gypsies, Disabled people, and gays generally couldn't do that as the Nazis deemed them biologically bad. For example the Nazis were quite willing to kill "anti-Zionist" Jews who had belonged to the Italian Fascist party and did so on occasion. (Mussolini had originally allowed Jewish people into the Fascist Party. I think Italian Fascism had some bigotry, but it was more cultural and nationalistic than racial or religious. Ethiopians were inferior non-European people, but Jews could be properly Western and devoted to Italy) The Nazis killed gays who were members of the Nazi Party, like Ernst Rohm. If a suitably "Aryan" Jehovah's Witness had renounced all their values he or she I think would have had a better chance of being spared than that, but many of them refused to do so. Also some JWs were or maybe still are in South Korean prisons for refusing to do the mandatory military or state service.
The worst persecution is likely when a group is seen as not conforming to a standard value or even threatening that value. As many traditional civilizations have oaths to God or the Gods groups that reject that, like early Christians or Quakers or atheists, are seen as threatening the legitimacy of the state. In certain interpretations of Islam not being Muslim can be seen as a threat to society and its basis. In Tang Dynasty China Buddhism was once viewed as a threat to the Confucian values that held the society together. And in modern China the Falun Gong or the House Churches are seen as a threat to the people's loyalty to the state.
Persecution has been a human sickness from our decent from the trees. In today’s society we see layers of persecution, driven not out of ignorance but rather for the hunger for power. The powerful religions, and ideologies recognize and use their ability to lead the ignorant and uneducated with tales of a better life today or after they are dead. This gives them power over not only the ignorant who accept their myths, but also those they attack and enslave. History shows all that is need is social groups who looks, acts, or believes differently. It helps if they have something the other attacking group wants like land, wealth, knowledge, or oil, but it is not necessary if their ideas are seen as a threat to the attacker’s myths. They just write a holy book which condemns all other views, and it only takes a few zealots and lots of uneducated people to breed the prejudice. Their goal is control, power and greed over humanity. It is seen in Islam, Christianity, and any other myth based religion as well as several ideologies. They fine an opponent and claim he is a threat to their future salvation or goals, than it is an easy step to tack a star on their chest and justify burning millions in ovens, or killing hundreds of millions because they don’t recognize the supreme power of one religious group or another. Sadly it is hard to pick the most persecuted as each religious group is in that struggle for power and wealth. Today alone we see the push of Islam, the drive into Africa by the catholic church, the christian movement in the states over fear science will prove them as irrelevant. It is greed and power pure and simple. We just seem to blind or afraid to address it.
Thanks for the interesting comments. There are also completely random acts of violence that happen when people get angry and want to blame someone. After the 9/11 attacks someone went into a store in Phoenix and shot a man dead because he thought he looked like he was from the Middle East. The man was actually from India as I recall and obviously not guilty of any crime against America.
I also mentioned the Jews in the OP. I've talked about a white supremacist a couple of times on this forum that unfortunately sat right across the aisle from me at work. The statements that this guy made were just unbelievable. He told me that he considered the Jews to be something subhuman and he also said that if he had the power he would nuke the entire continent of Africa. They finally fired this guy. This is another example of someone who blamed everyone else for his own personal failures and there's alot more just like him.
The Sikhs faced a good deal after 9-11. Unlike Muslims Sikh males are ideally supposed to wear a turban and have a beard. (Not all do this, granted) So some Sikhs were attacked for being "Muslims" because their religion was more visually obvious than actual Muslims.
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Who Are The Most Persecuted People In The World?
