Religious segregation

Religious segregation involves the separation of people on the basis of religion. Template:Discrimination2

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Religious segregation runs deep in the country’s society mainly since the 90’s Yugoslav Wars in general and Bosnian War in particular.

From education to sports, from municipalities to cantons and entities, from language policy to regional flags and coat of arms, the strict and sometimes unpeaceful separation between Muslim Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbs and Roman Catholic Croats is present in most of BiH’s territory.

Jonathan Steele of The Guardian has argued that Bosnia and Herzegovina is "a dependent, stifled, apartheid regime". In his view, the U.N. control of Bosnia under the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, which he described as "UN-sanctioned liberal imperialism", creates "dependency, stifles civil society, and produces a highly visible financial apartheid in which an international salariat lords it over a war-wounded and jobless local population."

Saudi Arabia and Iran

"Non-Muslim Bypass:" Non-Muslims are barred from entering Mecca

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Saudi Arabia deny non-Muslims some of the civil rights and voting privileges they grant to Muslims. Iran consigns non-Muslim monotheists to the status of dhimmis, both officially and by custom. Christains are identified by National ID cards There have been reports of imprisonment, harassment, intimidation, and discrimination based on religious beliefs.In fact until March 1, 2004, the official Saudi government website stated that Jews were forbidden from even entering the country. Saudi Arabia in particular is notorious for very stringent religious laws banning the practice of non-Muslim religions, even prescribing imprisonment and the death penalty for attempting to convert Muslims to other religions.

Northern Ireland

Main article: Segregation in Northern Ireland

Many Irish nationalists and republicans have described Northern Ireland as being a gerrymandered or even apartheid state, on the grounds that it was created to ensure a built-in Protestant majority, resulting in discrimination against Catholics in government, education, housing and employment. One legacy of this has been that most state schools in Northern Ireland are predominantly Protestant while the majority of Catholic children attend schools maintained by the Catholic Church, although there are now also a number of integrated schools. This has often exacerbated religious, political and cultural differences between the two communities.

Between 1921 and 1972, Northern Ireland was governed by the Parliament of Northern Ireland, which was Protestant-dominated, while at local government level, electoral boundaries were devised to create Protestant majorities. The outbreak of the Troubles led to the imposition of direct rule by the British government, which has since sought to introduce power sharing between unionists and nationalists.

The Netherlands

Between (roughly) 1917 and 1966 Dutch society and politics were characterized by pillarisation: a system of self-imposed religious segregation between Catholics, Reformed and atheists and liberal protestants. These three groups each had their own schools, political parties, labour unions, employers' associations and other forms of social infrastructure. Each religious group lived in its own separated "pillar". On the national level the elites cooperated in a consociational political system. This social and political system was based on a particular interpretation of the separation of church and state formulated by Abraham Kuyper called sphere sovereignty. According to Arend Lijphart it was this system of pillarisation and elite cooperation which resulted in the strong democratic tradition in the Netherlands, a country characterized by religious cleavages.

Today, the importance of religion in the Netherlands has waned, but still some of these pillarised institutes remain: religious schools for instance still receive government finance and educate about half of the Dutch pupils. Some multiculturalist politicians, mainly members of the social-democratic PvdA, the christian-democratic CDA and the GreenLeft, have proposed that the growing Islamic minority would be allowed to form its own pillar, other politicians, like Pim Fortuyn and Ayaan Hirsi Ali have opposed such a system, because it would trap muslims in a restrictive community.

See also

• Blood money laws
• Devşirme system
• Dhimmi laws
• Ghetto
• Jim Crow laws
• Jizyah tax
• Judenhut
• Mellah
• Ottoman Millet system
• Minority religion
• Nuremberg laws
• Racial segregation
• Second-class citizen
• Yellow badge
• Afghanistan,
• Iran,
• Malaysia,
• Mauritania,
• Pakistan,
• Saudi Arabia,
• Sudan.

External links

• Dhimmi.Com: Victims of Muslim Religious Apartheid
• religious apartheid in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
• Allegations of apartheid
• Directory of the Saudi Institute gives testimony to US House of Representatives on religious apartheid in Saudi Arabia