Who Discriminates More? Comparing Religious Discrimination in Western Democracies, Asia and the Middle East

Abstract

Unlike its presence in the world of politics, religion failed to take a prominent role in political science in much of the modern era. Recent research suggests this might be changing. It also suggests that in order to study religion, scholars need more data on the subject. This study introduces a new data collection on religious discrimination at the minority level and uses this new data collection to compare religious discrimination in western democracies, Asia and the Middle East for the time period 1990–2004. In this paper, religious discrimination, ethnicity and religion are first discussed with specific emphasis on Muslim majority states and the Middle East. Second, the process of data collection, including case selection, forming a religious discrimination index, coding and back-up coding issues, is outlined. Finally, results on religious discrimination in different regions and states with different majority religions are presented. The data indicate that western democracies treat their religious minorities much better than Middle Eastern countries or Asian countries. Yet the Middle East, which is considered the most prominent example of a region with religious tension, does not have significantly higher average religious discrimination values than Asia. Similarly, even though states with a Muslim majority seem to be less tolerant compared to states with a Christian majority, in states with other majority religions such as Buddhism or Hinduism, discrimination against ethnoreligious groups is present as well. Moreover, religious discrimination values for the minorities in western democracies increased after September 11.