Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash
In 550 B.C., Cyrus, king of Anshan, founded the Achaemenid Empire, he reigned from 550 B.C to 530 B.C. The Achaemenid Empire was the largest empire by the percentage of the world’s population in history. About 44% of the world’s population lived under its rule. It was also the most diverse and pluralistic empire in the world at the time, unifying different nations, tribes, languages, cultures and religions. Tolerance of varying beliefs was one of its most defining characteristics.
At the height of the Roman empire, it had conquered so many civilisations, in order to be able to control that vast empire, it needed complete cooperation from its conquered nations, it usually treated them as allies and encouraged them to participate in the glory and wealth of its empire. To all its subjects, Rome granted religious toleration with one condition attached, they must also recognize the roman deities, herein is where they had problems with the Jews, the Jews would not accept any deity outside of Yahweh. Notwithstanding, Judaism still had the status of a legal religion in the Roman Empire with formal protections. Like the Romans, almost all the conquered empires were polytheistic. Since they believed other people had their own gods, they found it relatively easy to take part in festivals celebrating Roman gods. It was simply a matter of paying respect to the Romans.
In the 13th century, Genghis Khan consolidated the small nomadic Asian tribes into the Mongol empire and embarked on one of the greatest conquests, turning Mongolia into the largest contiguous empire in history after his death. He launched the Mongol Invasion and captured almost all of Eurasia. The Mongols were highly tolerant of most religions during the early Mongol Empire. Under his administration, all religious leaders were exempted from taxation, and from public service. Mongol emperors were known for organizing competitions of religious debates among clerics, and these would draw large audiences.
Christianity started out as a small unorganized Jewish sect that promised personal salvation after death, During the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great (A.D. 306–337), Christianity transitioned to the dominant religion in Rome. In 325, Constantine called the Council of Niceae, which was the gathering of church leaders for the foundational beliefs of orthodox Christians, the result of which is the Nicene Creed which laid out the agreed-upon beliefs of the council, and Christianity accordingly. In 380 CE, the emperor Theodosius issued the Edict of Thessalonica, which made Christianity, specifically Trinitarian Christianity (expounded by the council of Nicene), the official religion of the Roman Empire. Most other Christian sects were declared heretical, lost their legal status, and had their properties confiscated by the Roman state. Arianism and all other Christian sects were immediately condemned.The seat of the papacy was soon introduced and as the power of the pope grew, each successive pope became more efficient at getting the kings of Western Europe to do the bidding of the church.
Soon, kings who wanted to advance their empires would declare they had converted and would request an army from the pope in order to conquer and convert neighbouring people. Notable amongst them is the consolidation of Celtic tribes into one Frankish kingdom who would be known today as the French. Missionary, conquest and enforcement saw the spread of Christianity across Europe and around the world. The crusades, the Spanish inquisition started out as tools for defence and regulation of the faith. The Inquisition was originally intended primarily to identify heretics among those who converted from Judaism and Islam to Catholicism, the regulation of the faith of newly converted Catholics was intensified after the royal decrees issued in 1492 and 1502 ordering Jews and Muslims to convert to Catholicism or leave Castile. In colonial Massachusetts, a wave of mass hysteria triggered the Salem witch trials where 19 “witches” were hanged. Jesus had instructed his disciples to love their enemies, but after Emperor Constantine had turned to Christianity, with the full financial support and army of the Roman empire, Christians acquired the opportunity to use violence toward competing groups and pagans, even though they were instructed to love them personally.
In the 7th Century, Angel Gabriel visited an Orphan named Mohammed ibn Abdullah (PBUH) in a Cave in Mecca, calling for submission to the one God, the expectation of the imminent Last Judgement, and taking care for the poor and needy. This message soon resonated with the Arab but was met with resistance from the Nobles in Mecca. The trade of the Notables of Mecca at the time relied on the sale of polytheist merchandise, which explains the reason for the resistance. In 622, he fled to Medina for fear of his life and gained a massive following. With this newfound Muslim base, Mohammed (PBUH) launched a series of raids on Meccan caravans. Mohammed (PBUH) was a military genius and soon led the defeat of the Meccans in a war of 1000 Meccans vs 313 Muslim troops in the Battle of Badr (624 CE). After the battle at Badr, the Muslims became a military force to be reckoned with. They launched a series of wars with competing Abrahamic Religions and pagans alike and soon enough, the gates of Mecca, which they have once fled became open to them. With Mecca in the hands of the Muslims, Mohammed (PBUH) offered an amnesty to all those who surrendered and accepted Islam. The story of wars and conquest continued with Islam expanding as several Islamic caliphates were formed across Asia and Europe. The 8th century brought about the Islamic golden age, which gave rise to many authorities in polymaths, mathematics, astronomy, philosophy and medicine. Spain was also captured. The 13th century saw the rise and fall of many Islamic caliphates, the loss of Spain in the Reconquista and many others. They also suffered many losses from the Mongol Invasions until the age of the Islamic Gunpowder ushered in the Ottoman Empire.The 19th and 20th century saw the fall of the Islamic world to the European world powers. Till this days the rivalry between the two dominant religions continues.
In West Africa, asides ethnic and regional conflicts, religious conflicts were unheard of, and the religious tolerance permitted many Africans to allow their children to convert to the new religion when the Christian missionaries came. Agreed, this can be debated as there are not many records documented about what transpired at the time, but from tales passed down, it can be observed that many of our ancestors were tolerant enough to allow their children to adopt the religion of the West. The same courtesy, unfortunately, is not extended by the offspring of these same once tolerant ancestors; fire and brimstone will be raised if a child from a Christian home desires to adopt Islam or vice versa. With the acceptance of Western religion came the deliberate destruction of places of worship of many indigenous African religions, a gesture which if reciprocated will have the Abrahamic religion screaming ‘persecution’. There has been continuous stigmatization and oppression of the indigenous African religion as well as the demonization and demeaning of everything around their practice.
It will be completely dishonest of me to conclude this piece without mentioning religious intolerance outside of the Abrahamic religions. China has continuously carried out repression action against the Uighurs, a huge population of which are Muslims, in Xinjiang, and detained them in reeducation camps, although they have consistently maintained that they are not infringing on their human rights. There have also been four Buddhist persecution events that have occurred in China, historically. Depending on where you stand, it could be argued that the actions of the Chinese are purely political and not religious, I’ll leave that to the audience to ponder on that.
Considering the fact that the most iconic historic figure and civilization at their peak allowed religious freedom for their subjects as highlighted in the varying paragraphs above, one cannot help but wonder if religious intolerance at scale is a construct of Abrahamic religions?
References
- Constitutional Rights Foundation* (2020). Available at: https://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-13-4-b-religious-tolerance-and-persecution-in-the-roman-empire (Accessed: 15 May 2020).
- What ancient Egypt tells us about a world without religious conflict (2015). Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/oct/30/ancient-egypt-faith-after-the-pharaohs (Accessed: 15 May 2020)
- Christianity in the Roman Empire (article) / Khan Academy (2020). Available at: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/ancient-medieval/christianity/a/roman-culture (Accessed: 17 May 2020)
- Genghis Khan (2017). Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genghis_Khan (Accessed: 17 May 2020).
- Religion in the Mongol Empire (2016). Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_Mongol_Empire (Accessed: 17 May 2020).
- Ancient Greek religion (2020). Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_religion (Accessed: 17 May 2020).
- History of Christianity (2020). Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Christianity#Early_Christianity_(c._31/33%E2%80%93324) (Accessed: 17 May 2020).
- Arianism (2020). Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianism(Accessed: 17 May 2020).
- Christianity in Europe: History, Spread and Decline (2020). Available at: https://study.com/academy/lesson/christianity-in-europe-history-spread-decline.html (Accessed: 17 May 2020).
- http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?ParagraphID=etn
- https://www.discoverfrance.net/France/History/DF_history.shtml
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition
- https://www.history.com/topics/religion/islam
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Islam
- https://www.ancient.eu/islam/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials
- Albert, C.G & Riemer, R 2014, Violence in Ancient Christianity: Victims and Perpetrators, Brill Academic Publishers, The Netherlands.
- China’s Repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang (2020). Available at: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-repression-uighurs-xinjiang (Accessed: 11 August 2020).
- Four Buddhist Persecutions in China (2020). Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Buddhist_Persecutions_in_China#:~:text=The%20Old%20History%20of%20the,of%20China’s%206%2C030%20Buddhist%20temples. (Accessed: 11 August 2020).