A minority religion is a
religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...
held by a
minority of the population of a country, state, or region. Minority religions may be subject to
stigma or
discrimination
Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of Racial discrimination, r ...
. An example of a stigma is using the term
cult
In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. Thi ...
with its extremely negative connotations for certain
new religious movement
A new religious movement (NRM), also known as alternative spirituality or a new religion, is a religious or Spirituality, spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in ...
s.
People who belong to a minority religion may be subject to discrimination and prejudice, especially when the religious differences correlate with
ethnic
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established fo ...
differences.
Laws are made in some countries to protect the rights of religious minorities, such as protecting the minorities' culture and to promote harmony with the majority.
See also
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Minority group
The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...
*
Religious minorities in Greece
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Religious minorities in India
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Religious minorities in Iran
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Religious minorities in Iraq
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Religious minorities in Pakistan
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Religious minorities in Turkey
Minorities in Turkey form a substantial part of the country's population, representing an estimated 26% to 31% of the population.
Historically, in the Ottoman Empire, Islam was the official and dominant religion, with Muslims having different ...
References
Minorities
Religion and politics
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