Blog 4: A Rising Era of Understanding or Intolerance?

A study of the global restriction of religion, which took place during/between 2009 and 2010, was recently released that showed a trend towards more government restriction on religion, particularly in Middle Eastern and North African countries. The measurement of restriction was based off of two separate indicators – government restriction and social hostility, government restrictions being laws or attempts to limit what, where, and when people can worship, and social hostility being harassment or even mob-like activity against a particular religious group. In many countries people are afraid to worship, and religious groups target one another. This is not a new conflict – in fact it is probably one of the oldest – but the rise in government restriction is what is most interesting. People should be allowed to worship, and conversely not worship, what they wish, when they wish, how they wish, without fear of persecution, violence, or harassment. No one should be forced to believe something if they do not wish to, nor forced to give up what they do believe in. In Nigeria, at least, the rise in religious tension is linked to decades of strife and stress between two religious groups over things such as land; if this is the case in other countries as well, it’s not an excuse for hatred, and the government certainly has no right to discriminate because of religion either – if one group has a problem with another, a label isn’t going to help solve it. Any way you put it, social hostility aside, there has been a rise in government restriction on religion – and while I personally do not associate with any religion, it is still a basic human right to be allowed to worship as one likes and believe in what one wishes, and it should never be taken away or restricted by anyone, against anyone. If people can't respect each other's beliefs, and if that disrespect is growing worse, who knows where we'll end up?

Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/world/restrictions-on-religion-are-tightening-study-finds.html?ref=todayspaper&moc.semityn.www

Declaration of Human Rights (it’s Article 18): http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml

Reagan Overton

21 September 2012

4:58