Status Of Religious Minorities Research Articles

The Concept of Freedom of Belief and Its Boundaries in Egypt: The Jehovah's Witnesses and the Baha'i Faith Between Established Religions and An Authoritarian State

A number of new religious communities have been emerging in Egypt since the second half of the nineteenth century. The most important of them—both numerically and in terms of the attention they attract—are the Baha'i Faith and the Jehovah's Witnesses. Both groups have been officially dissolved and face strong opposition from the established religions as well as a number of legal problems. Egyptian courts have dealt with Baha'is and Jehovah's Witnesses in a number of contexts, and have on these occasions had to discuss the question of how the principle of freedom of belief, which has been part of all Egyptian constitutions since 1923, affects the status of religious minorities not recognised by the state. Their arguments allow interesting conclusions not only about the prevailing understanding of the principle of freedom of belief, but also about the relationship between Islam, the Coptic Orthodox Church and the state.

The Legal Status of Religious Minorities: Imāmī Shī'ī Law and Iran's Constitutional Revolution

AbstractThis study investigates the extent to which the laws of Iran's Constitutional Revolution mark a break with Islam with regard to the legal status of religious minorities as reflected in the writings of some eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Imāmī Shī ī ulamā . Whereas Shī ī law usually treated religious minorities and Shī īs differentially, some—but not all—of the Revolutionary enactments treat religious minorities as the equals of Muslims. I conclude that the legal status of some religious minorities improved only somewhat during the Revolution as compared to their status under Shī ī law. The two-faced nature of the Revolution's enactments echoes the rival forces at work. The controversy over whether religious minorities should be treated as equals was legal in nature, but no less a dispute over the orientation of Iranian society.

Religious Freedom and the European Convention on Human Rights: The Case of the Baltic States

At the end of the nineteenth century my great-grandparents emigrated from Vilnius, Lithuania, to Great Britain, primarily to escape persecution. It was therefore an emotional occasion for me when I visited Vilnius in the summer of 1999. I stayed in the city of Kaunas and viewed the monument to those who died in the concentration camp on the outskirts of the town during the Second World War. It was also my privilege to visit Estonia in October 1999 to attend a conference on 'Law, Religion and Democratic Society' at the University of Tartu and to meet government and religious representatives from all three Baltic states. As a lawyer with a keen interest in religious freedom, especially in the Baltic states, I have written this article in an attempt to clarify what the minimum standards of religious freedom are as promulgated in international law and to ascertain to what extent the Baltic states are meeting those standards. The Baltic states are emerging from many years of totalitarian oppression. They have the difficult task of drafting and implementing laws which will guarantee fundamental rights and freedoms whilst striving to preserve their respective cultures. Difficulties tend to arise with regard to laws relating to religious freedom, in particular in the context of avoiding potential religious and ethnic conflicts. As I shall show later, the Baltic states have introduced legal provisions on freedom of religion analogous to those granted under the European Convention on Human Rights. In this article I discuss the implications of the European Convention on Human Rights as far as the recognition, registration and tax exemption of religions and religious associations are concerned. I shall show that some countries in Central and Southern Europe, including some which are members of the European Union (EU), are abusing the rights of religious minorities by imposing arbitrary and discriminatory registration and recognition requirements. I shall also show that some other EU countries appear to be consistently breaching the European Convention with regard to the legal status of religious minorities and the rights of individual members of such minorities, despite the fact that these countries also guarantee freedom of religion. I shall discuss the current situation and future prospects in the Baltic states in this wider European context.

The Legal Status of Religious Minorities in Spain

The legal status of religious minorities and churches in Spain has undergone numerous changes in recent years. These changes repre sent a determined effort by Spanish government officials to make reli gious liberty in Spain a reality, although, as this essay will indicate, many patterns of religious discrimination remain in place. The legal status of religious organizations in Spain is comprised of two elements: (1) religion in Spain is considered by society and the law as having a social and cultural value because of the long tradition of Catholicism; (2) as a consequence of Spain's past religious tradition, the constitutional system (recognizing religious liberty as a constitutional right) made the choice of cooperation between church and state, rather than of separation between church and state. Nevertheless, the tradition of the Catholic Church as the only es tablished church is a very real part of Spanish identity. This makes it difficult for any minority church or religious community, even those with with deep roots in the past, such as Islam or Judaism, to receive equal treatment under the law. Spain is no longer an established Catholic country. Art. 16.3 of the 1978 Constitution declares that no church will be the church of the

The Status of Religious Minorities in Safavid Iran 1617-61

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Status of Religious Minorities in Safavid Iran 1617-61Vera B. MoreenVera B. Moreen Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Near Eastern Studies Volume 40, Number 2Apr., 1981 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/372866 Views: 28Total views on this site Copyright 1981 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Albert Kaganovitch The Jewish Communities of Central Asia in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods, Iranian Studies 52, no.5-65-6 (Jan 2022): 923–946.https://doi.org/10.1080/00210862.2019.1646116Kioumars Ghereghlou On the margins of minority life: Zoroastrians and the state in Safavid Iran, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 80, no.11 (Feb 2017): 45–71.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X17000015Maryam Moazzen Rituals of Commemoration, Rituals of Self-Invention: Safavid Religious Colleges and the Collective Memory of the Shi‘a, Iranian Studies 49, no.44 (May 2015): 555–575.https://doi.org/10.1080/00210862.2015.1030985Aida Gureghian Eternalizing a Nation: Armenian Hishatakarans in the Seventeenth Century, Church History 79, no.0404 (Nov 2010): 783–799.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009640710001022Hugh Goddard Challenges and developments: Christian‐Muslim relations in the Middle East, International journal for the Study of the Christian Church 3, no.22 (Jan 2003): 15–35.https://doi.org/10.1080/14742250308574031