What is religious freedom: Everyone has a different definition of it. I will lay out some of the definition and quotes of religious freedom to better explain the concept of the religious freedom.
Mormonnewsroom defines Religious Freedom as “Religious freedom is a fundamental human right and the first among rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution. It is the right to think, express and act upon what you deeply believe, according to the dictates of conscience.”
Minspring defines it as “the notion that people of religion can freely partake of the practices of their religion without opposition. This would not only include private devotions but also acts of religious significance within the realm of government.”
PEW Research Center states that 32 percent of the world’s population is affiliated Christianity, 23 percent Islam, 15 percent Hinduism, 7 percent Buddhism, 0.2 percent Jewish, 6 percent traditional and folk religions, while 16 percent have no affiliation with any religion in the world.
The data shows a great level of diversity. Almost every part of the world, such kind of diversity can be found. Although some countries or regions have the majority of a specific religion, still, almost in every country people of different believes, faith, and religions resides. That’s what the beauty of nature is. We are all different, our perspectives are different, our thought levels are different, our preferences are different, our living styles are different, and that brings fragrance in our lives. If we all were same, we wouldn’t have the loveliness of diversity. But, unfortunately, in some part of the world, religious freedom is a nightmare.
Throughout the world, every constitution grants the citizen to have the freedom of religion, but, in practice, religious freedom is hard to prevail. There are a variety of the reasons, of them; the major reason is the dominance of majority religious party that doesn’t allow the minorities to have the freedom to celebrate their own religion.
A recent case in Pakistan: Where a group of ten people attacked a church, is a sign of how minorities are unsafe in Pakistan. But, unfortunately, it’s not only Pakistan, where minorities are faced with problems of religious freedom but throughout the world, all minorities’ religious groups have same kinds of problems. Taking an example of the recent campaign “Lets Punish Muslim” that took start by distributing flyers in United Kingdom (UK) to spread the word to punish Muslims in Muslim minorities countries – unfortunately, such kinds of movements causes religious extremism and that has already caused a lot of destruction in the world and will cause a lot of destruction, if it is not controlled.
To control religious extremism and promoting religious freedom, we have to practically implement the legislation that promotes religious freedom and should come up with laws that discredit and ban such movements that cause religious extremism. Religious clerics, authorities, and academia members are crucial to help promote the religious extremism.
Let’s take a leading role to promote religious freedom for a developed, sustainable, and peaceful world!!
