Are all religions inherently intolerant? The foreign policy implications.

• Author: Dorschner, Jon P.

An examination of religions throughout the course of history reveals that a majority of them have been guilty of intolerance and discrimination at some point. Many persons examining this issue try to construct a typology, ranking religions from most intolerant to most tolerant. They then try to isolate explanatory variables and apply them. They do this by systematically examining the tenets of religious faiths to determine whether these can be proven to result in more or less intolerance.

While this approach is well and good, it is possible to construct a more effective analytical model. Religions should not be looked at in isolation. Religions should not be looked at as competitors. Religion is an inherent element in human cultures worldwide. What underlies the vast variation in religions across the world is the vast variation in human culture itself. The most effective analytical model would be holistic, examining religion as a functional whole, stressing elements of commonality rather than difference.

The goal should be not to determine whether one religion is more tolerant than another, but to attempt to determine whether religions writ large are inherently more intolerant than other cultural institutions. Many atheists argue that religion is by definition intolerant. They use this as a justification to call for the abandonment of religion altogether. I agree with them to the extent that it makes no sense to try to construct a typology of religions with the intent of identifying "good" and "bad" faiths. Religion survives or disappears as a common entity. No one righteous faith will supplant all others to become the religion of mankind.

A key explanatory variable that can be applied to determine whether religion is inherently intolerant is the behavior of religions when their adherents are in the majority in a population and the behavior of religions when they are in a minority. A detailed analysis of the behavior of religious faiths over the course of human history reveals this to be a crucial factor.

For most religious faiths, there is a "tipping point" when they achieve demographic dominance. When a religion achieves this point, it begins to put intolerance into practice. As a religion's dominance of the population increases, it accrues more control over economic and political power. It then succumbs to temptation and begins to use this power to persecute and discriminate against members of minority faiths.

We see such a scenario unfold over and over again and that it applies in a majority of instances. It would not matter, for example, if a majority religion were Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, or whatever. We can find examples in history where it attains a demographic tipping point, and its intolerant behavior becomes apparent.

Let us look at religious behavior in the contemporary world.

Islam has come under considerable scrutiny in the present because of the rise in Islamic terrorism. Much of this terrorism has been directed against religious minorities. Islamic terrorists commit acts of terrorism not only against non-Muslim religious minorities, but against Muslims it deems to be heretics. The behavior of extreme Sunni Muslim groups such as the Islamic State (IS) has been most egregious in recent years. For example, when IS conquers territory in Iraq and Syria, it targets not only non-Muslim minorities such as Christians, Jews and Yezidis for harsh and inhumane treatment, it also targets Shia and Sufi Muslims. Sunni extremists have demonstrated this pattern of behavior all over the world.

This is not to say that Shia Muslims are inherently tolerant and that Sunni Muslims are inherently intolerant. When Shia Muslims came to power in Iran after the...