Segregation of Religious Groups

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In the modern world, many religions and religious groups have different traditions, customs, and laws. Such pluralism is based on the differences of religions in key aspects and concepts of faith in God, which forces people to choose the set of beliefs caused by social influences. On the one hand, this pluralism is a positive trend, which demonstrates the absence of a single ideology and its dominance in the world, as well as the free will of people. However, on the other hand, it causes conflicts and disputes between segregated religious groups that form the system of religion as a whole. At the same time, although this segregation is evident at the level of faith, it also has scientific and social reasons that support this division. Consequently, this literature review will study these reasons and factors for the segregation of religious groups to examine the underlying scientific arguments and assess the level of knowledge of the topic in research circles.

The first feature of the religious segregation topic is that quite a few scientists directly study the causes and factors of this phenomenon in the modern world. Nevertheless, a sufficient number of theories and studies investigate specific issues referring to religious segregation in the literature. Pamungkas (2018) studies the social distance between Muslims and Christians and the impact of ethnoreligious identity on it. The author’s central concept is social identity theory, which explains the reasons for social distance and, therefore, the segregation of representatives of different religions. Social identity theory is based on the assumption that people identify with the group of “us” instead of the group of “them.”

At the same time, as noted by Pamungkas (2018), people make judgments and perceive the principles of their in-group higher than the out-group because of social comparison. In most cases, this comparison should be favorable for the in-group, contributing to its members and community. Consequently, these ideas explain the reasons for the divisions and segregation between religious groups, as their participants see the principles of opponents as less moral, correct, or sacred. This fact is one of the reasons for the existence of the segregation of religious groups.

Other authors also use similar ideas in their articles to demonstrate the causes of religious segregation and explain its social factors. For example, van der Noll (2019) finds that religious communities are more prone to prejudice shaped by religion’s emotional, social, and cognitive aspects. The author argues that the social and cognitive dimensions of religion determine who is a member of a group and what is a threat to it. At the same time, prejudices are formed as reactions to external factors that can be a threat to the belief system of a person of a particular religious group (van der Noll 2019). For example, if one of the customs or practices of Muslims is regarded as threatening the faith of Christians, the latter form prejudice and even hostility in Muslims. An example is an attitude towards Muslims after the terrorist attacks, although this hostility is a manifestation of only a relatively small group of radical Islamists. Hence, these findings demonstrate that religious segregation exists due to social factors, namely fear of external threats to the existence of the group.

Moreover, articles by other authors demonstrate human socialization also plays a significant role in maintaining religious segregation. For example, Golo et al. (2019) argue that religious socialization is influenced by various agents. Authors disprove the idea that the family is the primary social agent since peers, media, and other social institutions are also key to developing and maintaining faith. Golo et al. (2019) demonstrate that people undergo secondary and often primary socialization by accepting and studying the characteristics and foundations of a particular religious or atheistic group. Consequently, this socialization pushes people to belong to a group and preserves religious segregation. At the same time, Chalik, Leslie, and Rhodes (2017) argue that young children form religious categories depending on the religious affiliation of their parents, although culturally specific patterns are manifested in the process of their development. Thus, the authors demonstrate that in both cases, religious segregation is shaped by the social environment, although the cultural context can diminish its negative impact if state policy promotes tolerance.

In practice, this segregation manifests itself in many historical and current examples of segregation and discrimination against people based on their religious affiliation. This issue has been studied more proficiently in the literature since religious segregation is manifested in many cultures around the world. For example, Susewind (2017) examines the problem of resident segregation of Muslims in Indian cities, noting that the problem is related precisely to the religious affiliation of the minority. However, the author’s main conclusion is that the study of clustering should examine the voluntary and coercive factors of the segregation of minority residences. Moreover, many aspects indicate that Muslims in Indian cities are forced to live in ghettos due to the bias of the Hindu majority towards their religion and traditions.

Similar trends are noted by Hekmatpour and Burns (2019) in European societies, finding that a significant proportion of the Muslim population of France and the United Kingdom live in segregated neighborhoods. Moreover, the authors find that Muslims are also less likely to get jobs in Western Europe. At the same time, Hekmatpour and Burns (2019) note that this segregation has a broader manifestation since Europeans often classify people as Muslims by their skin color, ethnicity, and language, even if they do not profess Islam. However, the authors’ main finding is that segregation, as well as the average level of education, increases the negative attitudes of Muslims towards governments because they perceive their policies as hostile. Thus, segregation only increases the level of hostility and prejudice among different religious groups.

Segregation also manifests itself within religious groups along racial lines, which has been studied by various authors, mainly in American society. For example, Cobb, Üsküp, and Jefferson (2017) study congregational characteristics associated with the racial attitudes of Black churchgoers and note the significant impact of segregation in religious groups. First, the authors note the peculiarities of the division of Christian churches into predominantly Black and predominantly White, which demonstrate the segregation factor in the religious society of the United States. However, their main finding is that Black churchgoers who attend White churches are less likely to associate the socioeconomic differences between Whites and Blacks with a lack of educational opportunities (Cobb et al. 2017). However, the reasons for this attitude are unexplored and may relate both to parishioners’ perceptions and racial tolerance and the opportunities that Black and White parishioners have in their communities.

Other scholars also studied segregation in American Christian Society. However, Perry and Whitehead (2019) emphasize the belief that residents must be Christians to be true Americans. The first sections of this article describe the segregation and discrimination that white Christian Americans exhibit. For example, Perry and Whitehead (2019) note that xenophobia, racism, and Islamophobia are more prevalent among white believers who think that a true American should also be a Christian. This perception and attitude are related to the desire to assert white supremacy (Perry and Whitehead, 2019). Nevertheless, the main research issue and the authors’ finding was that non-white Americans who believe in the need for Christianity to be true citizens perceive religion as a way to combat structural inequality, but not a way for segregation. Thus, this study demonstrates that religious groups can also be divided by non-religious bias.

Therefore, this literature review demonstrates that various scholars have explored the issue of the segregation of religious groups; however, their approaches often do not include the study of the causes and factors of this phenomenon. In the scientific literature, one can find articles on the causes of religious diversity and social distance between representatives of a different group, although, in most cases, these factors are examined in the context of other research. In addition, many authors focus on the specific manifestations of religious segregation inherent in a particular culture. However, the literature lacks a comprehensive study covering the causes and factors of religious segregation in general, with examples of its most famous manifestations in history.

References

Chalik, Lisa, Sarah-Jane Leslie, and Marjorie Rhodes. 2017. “Cultural Context Shapes Essentialist Beliefs about Religion.” Developmental Psychology, 53(6), 1178–87. Web.

Cobb, Ryon, Dilara K. Üsküp, and Steven T. Jefferson. 2017. “Jefferson Congregational Composition and Explanations for Racial Inequality Among Black Religious Affiliates.” Race and Social Problems, 9, 163–169. Web.

Golo, Ben-Willie Kwaku, Måns Broo, Sławomir Sztajer, Francis Benyah, Sohini Ray, and Mallarika Sarkar. 2019. “Primary Religious Socialization Agents and Young Adults’ Understanding of Religion: Connections and Disconnections.” Religion, 49(2), 179–200. Web.

Hekmatpour, Peyman, and Thomas J. Burns. 2019. “Perception of Western Governments’ Hostility to Islam among European Muslims before and after ISIS: the Important Roles of Residential Segregation and Education.” The British Journal of Sociology, 70(5), 2133–2165. Web.

Pamungkas, Cahyo. 2018. “Ethno-Religious Identification and Social Distance Between Muslims and Christians: Analysis on Social Identity Theory.” Journal of Indonesian Social Sciences and Humanities, 6(1), 53–70. Web.

Perry, Samuel. L., and Andrew L. Whitehead. 2019. “Christian America in Black and White: Racial Identity, Religious-National Group Boundaries, and Explanations for Racial Inequality.” Sociology of Religion, 80(3), 277–298. Web.

Susewind, Raphael. 2017. “Muslims in Indian Cities: Degrees of Segregation and the Elusive Ghetto.” Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 49(6), 1286–1307. Web.

Van der Noll, Jolanda. 2019. “Prejudice and Religion.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. Web.

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Segregation of Religious Groups

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