A significant number of states have changed their relationship with religion recently, sparking debate about official government policies towards religious minorities. Bangladesh and Nepal, for example, moved to a secular state model, while Maldives, Tunisia and Somalia enacted constitutions adopting a state religion. Switzerland, France, Belgium and Australia have adopted laws somewhat interfering with the religious freedom of citizens, reflecting a change in respective understanding of secularism and religious freedom. But how much do state policies toward religion actually affect social hostilities toward minority religious groups?
There can be stark differences in political systems in terms of the state-religion relationship, yet very similar social hostilities toward minority religious groups. The theoretical assumption is that state restrictions inspire hostilities, which feed into further restrictions, in a feedback loop of violence. My recent research, however, suggests that there can be stark differences in political systems in terms of the state-religion relationship, yet very similar social hostilities toward minority religious groups. In my case studies, harassment, hate speech and intimidation all led to displacement, property damage, injuries, detentions and even deaths, despite a wide variance in state policy.
To study this problem in greater depth, I examined three models of the state-religion relationship that all had problems of social hostilities towards religious minority groups, despite taking quite different approaches: India, an established secular democracy; Bangladesh, which maintains a state religion constitutionally but is moving to a secular polity; and Pakistan, which is experimenting with democracy using a theocratic framework. I chose this sample based on three considerations; a) the shared history, culture and geographic proximity; b) taken together, the countries represent a thorough religious diversity; and c) the populations in these countries constitute 22% of humanity.
