Religious Discrimination against Religious Minorities in Middle Eastern Muslim States

Abstract

This study examines religious discrimination between 1990 and 2008 against 47 religious minorities in 17 Middle Eastern Muslim majority states using data from the Religion and State-Minorities data-set. The study uses a 29-category variable which measures restrictions on the religious practices or institutions of minority religions which are not placed on the majority religion. Forty-five of the 47 minorities, including all non-Muslim minorities, experience religious discrimination. Discrimination is lowest but still substantial against Muslim minorities (e.g. Shi'i Muslims in a Sunni Muslim state), higher against Christians, but highest against Hindus, Buddhists, Druze, and Bahai. Twenty-eight of the 29 types of religious discrimination included in the data-set are present in the region. Finally, when discounting the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime from Iraq, religious discrimination in the region remains stable.