Cross-Cuttingness and Religious Discrimination

• In Event: Religious Freedom and Rights

Abstract

How does cross-cuttingness affect discrimination against religious minorities? Some religious minorities share an ethnic identity with the largest ethnic group in their country, while the ethnic identity of other religious minorities is distinct from that of the largest ethnic group in the country. Regulation of religion and discrimination against minority religions (e.g., these can include restrictions on proselytizing and registration requirements specific to minority religions) occur frequently across the contemporary world. However, questions of how cross-cuttingness affects the likelihood that religious minorities will face discrimination and the type of religious discrimination they face are understudied in the extant literature. This paper examines those questions by merging data on cross-cuttingness with the Religion and the State (Round 3) dataset on religious discrimination across most countries in the contemporary world.

Author

• Nikola Mirilovic, University of Central Florida