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Athe Complexity of Religious Persecution@ The Complexity of Religion in Determining Refugee Status T. Jeremy Gunn Emory University, USA This paper was prepared as a background paper for an expert discussion on religion organized as part of the follow-up to the Agenda for Protection. The views expressed in this paper are not necessarily those of UNHCR. The paper is available online at http://www.unhcr.org/protect. “The Complexity of Religion in Determining Refugee Status” Roundtable on Religion-Based Refugee Claims United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Church World Service by T. Jeremy Gunn 8 a revised version of this paper will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Harvard Human Rights Journal October 24, 2002 Introduction....................................................................................................................................3 I. Understanding (rather than defining) Religion...........................................................................5 A. The understandable search for a legal definition ..........................................................6 B. Difficulties in the legal definition of religion ...............................................................8 1. Characteristics of definitions of religion ...........................................................8 a. Assumptions about the underlying nature of religion............................8 b. Types of definition: essentialist or polythetic ........................................8 2. Typical shortcomings in legal definitions of religion......................................10 a. Familiar understandings of religion....................................................10 b. Evaluating (or ranking) religions ........................................................10 c. The most serious shortcoming: failure to consider religion from the perspective of its adversaries.......................................................11 C. The facets of religion that frequently pertain to religious persecution .......................14 1. Religion as belief .............................................................................................15 2. Religion as identity ..........................................................................................16 3. Religion as a way of life...................................................................................18 D. Conclusion: characteristics of religions (in lieu of a definition) ................................19 Coda: are Falun Gong and the Church of Scientology religions? .......................21 II. Understanding Coercion and Persecution ...............................................................................22 A. The two directions of coercion in religious persecution.............................................22 1. Coercion that attacks or interferes with religion..............................................22 2. Coercion that enforces religious conformity ...................................................22 B. Agents of religious persecution...................................................................................23 1. The state as persecutor.....................................................................................23 2. Inter-religious and societal persecution ...........................................................24 3. Religious communities forcing conformity on their own people ....................25 C. Whether it is religious persecution .............................................................................25 1. Why there is religious persecution versus whether there is persecution..........25 2. Mixed-motives: gender ....................................................................................26 3. Other mixed motives: race, ethnicity, identity.................................................30 4. Religious persecution or the application of neutral laws.................................31 III. The Forms and Seriousness of the Persecution .....................................................................33 A. Forms of persecution ..................................................................................................33 1. Physical assaults on people, property, and religious symbols .........................33 2. Employment and other economic persecution.................................................35 2 3. Propaganda and media .....................................................................................36 4. The states use of laws and police powers to persecute....................................36 a. Prohibiting religious activities ............................................................36 b. Registration and control of religious organizations and facilities......37 c. Blasphemy, heresy, schisms, and apostasy ..........................................38 d. Censorship, control of information, and proselytism ..........................38 e. Sects and cults......................................................................................39 f. Use of religious laws (including shariah) ............................................39 g. Use of laws to discriminate, harass, seize property, etc......................41 5. State failure to enforce laws against those who commit violence ...................42 Coda: typical governmental responses to allegations that they have engaged in religious discrimination or persecution....................................................42 B. Seriousness of the persecution ....................................................................................42 1. Core and peripheral practices ..........................................................................44 2. Cumulative effects (in light of all the circumstances) .....................................44 IV. Possible Trends in Religious Persecution...............................................................................44 V. Conclusions..............................................................................................................................46 A. Complexity of religious persecution claims ...............................................................46 Conclusion 1: Complexity....................................................................................46 Conclusion 2: Persecution to enforce conformity ...............................................47 Conclusion 3: Mixed-motives for persecution.....................................................47 Conclusion 4: Gender..........................................................................................47 B. Preconceptions, misconceptions, and biases about religion and religions..................47 Conclusion 5: Preconceptions and biases...........................................................47 C. Terminology................................................................................................................48 Conclusion 6: Definitions of religion ..................................................................48 Conclusion 7: Religion as beliefs ........................................................................48 Conclusion 8: Religion as identity.......................................................................48 Conclusion 9: Religion as a way of life ...............................................................49 Conclusion 10: Other important terms................................................................49 D. Reliability of evidence ................................................................................................49 Conclusion 11: Difficulty (or impossibility) of obtaining reliable evidence .......49 Conclusion 12: Standard sources of information................................................50 Conclusion 13: Locating additional sources of expertise ...................................51 F. Evaluating the claimant ...............................................................................................52 Conclusion 14: Evaluating claimants knowledge about their religions..............52 Conclusion 15: Evaluating claimants observance of their religion ....................52 3 The victims of intolerance and discrimination on grounds of religion or belief are quite diverse: they may be believers or non- believers, communities of religion or belief or they may belong to society at large. Particularly affected, however, are vulnerable groups, such as women and minorities.1 - Professor Abdelfattah Amor U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief Introduction2 Claims of persecution on the basis of religion are likely to be among the most complex, arcane, and incomprehensible that will need to be decided by an asylum adjudicator. While religion may involve group identity (like race and nationality) or voluntary affiliation (like political and social groupings), it also encompasses an enormous range of human activities and beliefs. Adherents of some religions might claim, for example, to suffer persecution if required to cut their hair or shave their beards, while adherents of others might claim to be persecuted if forced to grow their hair. Some religions require ritual slaughter of animals and others forbid eating meat. Some require drinking alcohol in sacred rituals, others forbid its consumption at any time. Some religions forbid military service, others require male adherents to carry knives. Some require worship on Saturday and some on Sunday. Some permit a man to have more than one wife, and others consider the practice a sin. Some people believe they are commanded by
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