THE religious intolerance is the act of discriminating, offending and rejecting religions, liturgies and services, or offending, discriminating, assaulting people because of their religious practices and beliefs. Religious intolerance is marked in human history, mainly because, in the past, it was common to establishment of pacts between religions, especially institutionalized ones, such as Christianity, and the governments.
THE religion it was a means of demarcating political power and controlling the population. There was even a period when Christians were persecuted and criminalized in the Roman Empire. Today, republican thought and, in particular, the democracy prevent, at least theoretically, there is a direct link between State and religion, forming what we call the laic State.
Unfortunately, religious intolerance is still a reality that plagues communities around the world. In Brazil, this problem is mostly related to racism, because religious intolerance is practiced, on a larger scale, against adherents of African-based religions. In this case, religious intolerance carries a desire to nullify the belief associated with the original peoples of the
Africa.
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Law on religious intolerance
Brazil is, at least theoretically and from a legal point of view, a parentssecular. We respect, as a National State, the predispositions established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 5 of the Federal Constitution of 1988 it also ensures religious equality and reinforces the secularity of the Brazilian State.
In addition to the constitutional guarantee and the pact established by the UN through Universal Declaration of Human Rights, there is the Law No. 9,459, of May 13, 1997, which in its first article provides for punishment for crimes motivated by discrimination based on race, color, ethnicity, religion or national origin. Anyone who practices, induces or incites discrimination on account of the aforementioned reasons may be punished with one to three years of imprisonment and a fine. Despite the clear offensive of punishment guaranteed by law 9,459/97, there is no specific law to deal only with cases of religious intolerance.
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religious intolerance and xenophobia
As well as racism, the xenophobia it is also closely related to religious intolerance. As religion is a very striking feature in the culture of a people, the attack on religion can be used as an attack on that people. An example of this is the problem of xenophobia faced by peoples, generally Muslims from the Middle East, Europe and the United States.
From isolated experiences with radical Islamists from tradition Shiite, conservative sectors linked to fanatical Christian thought created an aversion to the Islam and spread this aversion to demarcate their aversion to peoples entering its national territory. This means that, after the migratory waves of Palestinians, Syrians and Africans to various parts of the world, the more conservative wings of some countries are seeking subterfuges in religion to keep foreigners far away.
Read too: Refugee Crisis in Europe
religious intolerance in Brazil
Data raised by the former Ministry of Human rights point out that, between 2015 and 2017, there was a report of religious intolerance every 15 hours in Brazil. O dial 100, number for the free denunciation of religious intolerance, even when practiced by public agents and state agencies, has the majority of records in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais, respectively|1|.
According to statistics, 25% of all bullies are identified as white and 9% of the occurrences are related to acts performed at home. Most victims of intolerance are composed of adherents of African-based religions. Catholics (64.4% of Brazilians) register 1.8% of allegations of intolerance, and Protestants (22.2% of the population) register 3.8% of allegations. At the same time, adherents of African-based religions (candomblé, umbanda and other denominations), which together represent 1.6% of the Brazilian population, also represent about 25% of the complainants of hate crimes and religious intolerance|2|.
Grades
|1|Click here and check the data exposed by an article in Revista Veja.
|2|Click here and check out the article “Religious intolerance will not silence our drums”, by Carta Capital Magazine.
by Francisco Porfirio
Sociology Professor