User:Vincentg1236/sandbox

Article:Religious intolerance

Religious intolerance is intolerance of another's religious beliefs or practices or the lack of practices.

Mere Statements which would contrary to one's belief do not constitute intolerance. Religious intolerance would occur in groups (e.g. society, a religious group, non-religious group). It would specifically be refusing to tolerate another's practices, persons, or beliefs on religious grounds. This has been a problem from many different religions as perspectives of followers of different faiths would clash. Depictions of religious intolerance include prosecutions, discriminations, reformation camps, etc.).

 Historical Views 

The intolerance, and even the active persecution of religious minorities (sometimes religious majorities as in modern Bahrain or the Pre-Dutch Indonesian kingdoms), has a long history. Not one region of Earth has been spared from having a past which was filled with religious intolerance.

The modern concept of religious tolerance developed out of the European wars of religion, more specifically out of the Peace of Westphalia which ended the 30 Years War (1618 - 1648), during the Protestant Reformation and the ensuing conflicts between Protestants and Catholics in the 17th and 18th centuries. The doctrine of 'religious toleration' was established as a result of the 30 Years War between the Catholic Hapsburgs and newly Protestant nations like Sweden under Gustavus Adolphus. At this time, rulers sought to eradicate religious sentiments and dogmas from their political demesnes. The 1648 Treaty gave nations the right of sovereignty and it also allowed minority Christian denominations to exist within the Holy Roman Empire.

According to the early 20th century British historian Arnold Toynbee, for a religious establishment to persecute another religion for being "wrong" ironically puts the persecuting religion in the wrong, undermining its own legitimacy.

 Contemporary attitude and practice 

Other countries, meanwhile, may allow for religious preference, for instance through the establishment 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 right of free expression of religion in article 11 of its constitution.

Some countries retain laws which forbid the defamation of religious beliefs. Some constitutions retain laws which forbid all forms of blasphemy (e.g., Germany where, in 2006, Manfred van H. was convicted of blasphemy against Islam). This is seen by some as official endorsement of religious intolerance, amounting to the criminalization of religious views. The connection between intolerance and blasphemy laws is closest when the laws apply to only one religion. In Pakistan blasphemy directed against either the tenets of 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.

 In China 

Currently, in China there is a big case of there being religious intolerance happening. It would have to be the treatment of people practicing their religion, Islam. There are currently camps that mistreat individuals that practice this religion. These camps being Xinjiang re-education camps, that would single out individuals of different religions, especially the Islam faith.

The Chinese government has a longstanding approach on how to deal with dissenters to their rule, including religion. Religion brings large groups of people together that believe in a higher power, leading to a potential revolution for the Chinese government to deal with. This is not limited to the Islam faith but also to the Uyghur people and people of Christian faith as well. One way the the Chinese government has chosen to deal with these dissenters is through "re-education camps."

These dissenters are forced to do hard labor and listen to "de-radicalization" talks for hours upon hours a day until they have been deemed "reformed" by the government body. Local authorities are reportedly holding hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs in these camps as well as members of other ethnic minority groups, for the stated purpose of countering extremism and terrorism and promoting social integration.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China, there were no reports of cases of the coronavirus in Xinjiang prisons or of conditions in the re-education facilities. After program suspensions due to the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic, Uyghur workers were reported to have been returned to other parts of Xinjiang and the rest of China to resume work beginning in March 2020. In September 2020, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) launched its Xinjiang Data Project, which reported that construction of camps continued despite claims that their function was winding down, with 380 camps and detention centers identified.