In the earliest days of human societies, religion has been at its core.  Influences on the lives of many individuals has been greatly impacted by the realities of various religions.  Occurrences of religious oppression has been proven through the facts of history.  People of oppression have been murdered, abused, and many times even emotionally impacted by the so called “laws” of certain belief systems. 

          Belief systems can be so integrated into a society that everyday life as it is, becomes the norm.  Hence making it a cruel and dehumanized reality for many men, woman, and children of every nation on this dying planet.  Assata Shakur, author of Assata: An Autobiography stated, “People get used to anything.  The less you think about your oppression, the more your tolerance for it grows.  After a while, people just think oppression is a normal state of things.  But to become free, you have to be acutely aware of being a slave.”  During early societies many different layers of religion came into existence.  As time has passed many new ideals and moral beliefs have been born.  In return subjecting various individuals to be attacked, shunned, and many times even murdered.

          Religion has and has had a stronghold on society.  These issues arise daily in the news headlines.  The article titled, Religious Oppression Around the World explains, “Religious oppression is, it rarely arises from irreligion, but rather from one religion or religious sect persecuting the beliefs of those who differ from them.  Monitoring violations of religious freedoms, therefore, becomes a matter of examining the ways in which established religion persecutes members of other religious faiths with impurity, and how they use their connections with, and influence on government powers in order to promote themselves and discriminate against others.” Eyler Robert Coates, Sr.  Many people would like to think that in this day in age, that people would respect others belief systems and way of life, but if you live in my current reality then you know this is far from the truth.  Again, it has proven fact that religious oppression occurs daily worldwide.

          These oppressions of history are not limited to one religion, but many of them.  Some are more cruel than others, but still all will be lost if we don’t learn from our mistakes and treat others as we ourselves want to be treated. Some well-known oppressive based religions can be found with the Salem Massachusetts witch trails, Hitler’s Nazi regime, Amish Communities, Jehovah Witnesses, Scientology, Catholics, Chinese regime, amongst many other religions, just to name a few. 

 

Reports of Oppression due to religion, span across the globe.

The Peoples Temple of Guyana where Jim Jones had a community based on religion.  His foundation originated in the United States but ended up moving a community into Guyana. Many People were there of their freewill but also were not allowed to leave the organization.  Hundreds of innocent people, men, women, and children were murdered and/or committed mass suicide.

Religion Today reports, that in 2001, Indonesian radicalized Muslims attacked Christians and their churches, because they are considered infidels.  Any nonbeliever of such faith is considered as such, making them a target for these violent groups.  The leaders of these people claim to be raising jihad, which means holy war.  The groups are currently viewed on the headlines because of how vicious these believers can be. 

Another report in this article tells that at the same time, Christians and Muslims, both were demanded to keep the unity and integrity of Hindu.  These individuals had to be indigenized into Hinduism and cut ties with their own spiritualties.

Many states in Nigeria uphold the Shari law.  The laws are consistent with many Muslim believers in many regions.  There are reports of female rape victims being murdered or stoned to death for not keeping their chastity, even when they themselves have no control of the situation.  This religion seems to be one of the most deadly and unforgiving religions, along with the BOKO HARAM. 

BOKO HARAM is currently in Nigeria, as stated above, along with Cameroon, and Chad.  It is noted to be West Africa’s most active terrorist group, according to Father John Flynn, author of Analysis: Christians Oppressed by their Faith.

The 1990 Broadcasting Act banned religious broadcasting.  This ban is currently in place in four different countries, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Iran. 

Islamic laws and governments in many different parts of the world have been some of the darkest days for a lot of people.  This religion has strongholds in Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan, Algeria, Palestine, and Egypt.  For many decades with the rise of Islam, people have been executed, decapitated, and stoned for their transgressions.  According to these religious beliefs, women belong to men, women are severely oppressed because of their gender.  They are considered a potential threat to men because they are a distraction to his duties.  Men are allowed to marry many wives and to freely divorce, but women cannot.  Sexual acts committed amongst the unwed are considered a sin, even if its rape.  Under the Islamic law women must keep their heads covered, veiled.  It delimits the physical boundary of a woman’s existence in society.  The woman being unveiled is considered to be an act against the religions morals and come with deadly consequences. 

 

Quotes for the Oppressed

“When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.”

 –Nelson Mandela

 

“Voldemort himself created his worst enemy, just as tyrants everywhere do! Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress?  All of them realize that, one day, amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one who rises against them and strikes back.”

–J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

 

“Since mankind’s dawn, a handful of oppressors have accepted the responsibility over our lives that we should have accepted for ourselves.  By doing so they took our power.  By doing nothing, we gave it away.  We’ve seen where their way leads, through camps and wars, towards the slaughterhouse.”

–Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

 

“Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people, they manipulate them.  They do not liberate, nor are they liberated: they oppress.”

 –Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

 

 

Sources

Women and Religious Oppression By Azam Kamguian http://www.famafrique.org/oppression.htm

 

Religious Oppression Around the World, Monitoring Violations of Religious Freedom © 2001 by Eyler Robert Coates, Sr.

 

Quotes About Oppression © 2015 Goodreads Inc. http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/oppression

 

The Most Recent Reports based on information provided by  http://www.religiontoday.com/