11 Facts about Religious Discrimination

1. Most religiously motivated hate crimes are acts of vandalism (like swastikas spray-painted onto synagogues and tombstones), but personal attacks are not uncommon.
2. According to the FBI, the overwhelming majority of religiously motivated hate crimes (64.3% in 2006) are directed against Jews.
3. A nationwide survey released in November of 2007 by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found that 15% of Americans - or nearly 35 million adults - hold views about Jews that are "unquestionably anti-Semitic," compared to 14% in 2005.
4. The FBI reported a seventeen-fold increase in anti-Muslim crimes nationwide during 2001, largely due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Muslims were also victims of harassment in the period immediately following the bombing of the Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City.
5. Two 2005 polls reveal that 34% of Americans believe that mainstream Islam encourages violence and 44% say some curtailment of civil liberties is necessary for Muslim Americans.
6. A few conservative Christians have made statements that categorize other religious groups as evil, degenerate, sub-human and/or hated by God. Some examples are:
• A former Southern Baptist president told two large meetings recently that God does not listen to the prayers of a Jew.
• Still another stated that non-Christians hate God, love sin, and don't care whether anyone is struggling with sin or not.
• A Baptist minister in Texas has allegedly called for the mass murder of Wiccans by napalm.
7. Religious intolerance is a driving force behind many of the world's armed conflicts and centers of civil unrest. A few current and recent conflicts include:
• Protestants vs. Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland
• Muslims vs. Serbian Orthodox Christians in Kosovo
• Aboriginals, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs in India
• Christians and Muslims in the Southern Philippine Islands
8. The wall of separation between church and state does not prevent judges and legislators from attempting to eliminate the rights of faith groups that they do not like:
• Family court judges in the U.S. and Canada occasionally discriminate in custody matters against the parent of minority, high demand faith groups, such as Jehovah's Witnesses.
• Various attempts have been made to modify the constitution in order to permit prayer in public schools. This would have students recite prayers of the dominant religion. Students who follow minority religions would be given the options of either violating their own beliefs or risk later harassment and violence from other students.
9. The constitutions of the U.S. and Canada guarantee religious freedom to all citizens, yet many hurdles remain to be overcome:
• Atheists are denied certain fundamental rights in some States. No Atheist could reasonably expect to be elected to any political office because of prejudice.
• Children are occasionally seized from homes because of some social workers' misunderstanding of their parents' religion.
10. A significant percentage of North Americans blame all Muslims and/or all Arabs for terrorist acts. Others blame all Fundamentalists within Islam. But in fact, the responsibility lies with extreme, radical, violent, Fundamentalist Muslims, a numerically small group among the world's approximately 1.2 billion Muslims.
11. One such group claiming the right to kill is Hamas, a Palestinian Sunni Islamist militant organization. In recruiting the bombers, Hamas leaders taught that the perpetrators of suicide missions would receive in heaven seventy virgins and seventy wives. Their families received a cash payment that used to be worth 12 to 15 thousand US dollars. In 2002, funds from Iraq and Saudi Arabia doubled this amount.

Sources:
American Psychological Association
Religious Tolerance
Council on American-Islamic Relations