The Impact Of Religious Belief Systems On Society

Belief systems are principles that form the basis of a religion or anything that people believe and have faith in. They are widely spread all around the world and almost every human being nowadays believes in a specific belief system that really shapes how they live their life every day. A person expresses their belief in God when they pray or remember him. Faith in God is a common thing amongst every religion and it is also what differentiates them from each other as they all have different ways of worship. There are many different belief systems but the strongest one is the religious belief system.

Examples are Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism and many more. The point of this is that these religions are solely based on our belief systems. The stronger our belief, the stronger our faith and dedication towards that religion. In fact belief systems affect us in our everyday lives so much that most of the population gets discriminated by what religion they believe in it. Most of the people in this world are not open to change or other views. They believe what they do is the ideal action for every human to do but that’s wrong as every human is entitled to do whatever they want to and this does include believing in whatever religion they want to. Religious extremists often make the lives of people from other religions difficult as all people have different viewpoints and the extremists think that they are superior. Most of these people are so extreme at making a point that they even resort to violence in order to threaten these people of other religions or even forcefully convert them. An example of this is an incident that happened to a Muslim living in India. His name was Shaukat Ali who was assaulted for selling beef in the state of Assam. The Indian mob made him eat pork which is forbidden in Islam. In a later interview he said he had no reason to live as he was stripped of his dignity. This is not the only example. We have the biggest example right in front of our eyes. 9th September 2001, 9/11. The biggest terrorist attack known to mankind yet.

The attack was done by a Muslim terrorist group that had changed the way how the whole world looked at Muslims. For them now, Muslims were all just a bunch of terrorists. These terrorists fight in the name of Jihad and bring shame as well as pain to all Muslims and people of all races, or religions. Children in school are bullied for what religion they believe in. Nowadays in the 21st century it is common for children to be bullied. Most of the reasons are religion or anything they believe in. We can believe in many things excluding religion. This includes politics or even philosophical beliefs. Another example is also the Christian sects. The Catholics and Protestants. The Protestants are a movement that are against the Catholics and that had caused a lot of unrest amongst them that there would be fights amongst them. The Equality Act of 2010 states that you cannot be discriminated based upon your religion or belief. It is ruled as unlawful and if people are physically abusing you then that is a proper criminal offence. Society has changed over time. It has gotten brainwashed and it is slowly leading to the end of mankind. People are unaccepting to other views and everyone is caught up in their selves. America is protected under the First Amendment and residents of America are free to practice whatever religion they want. Some countries however do not have this system and the citizens get harassed for their beliefs.

A study taken place from 2006-2010p proved that Christians were the most discriminated group in the world who were experiencing this by the government as well as society in 168 countries. Islam has the second largest religious population in the world and yet Muslims are still discriminated in almost 121 countries during 2006-2010. This shows how society is lately. No one is open to anyone else’s views and people are becoming more selfish. Even though these people get discriminated they still believe times will get better as their belief is strong. A strong belief is the key to survival and staying on the right path of life. Discrimination of ones beliefs can occur anywhere, from the workplace till the markets or streets. At the workplace a Muslim surrounded by an Indian workforce may not be favored due to his religion and may be treated unfairly. There are only some cases where they are not mistreated and are accepted no matter what religion they belong to. Indian mobs have also attacked may other people and have forced them to chant Hindu religious words that go against their religion and these victims are harshly beaten and are victims of physical abuse. Some of these victims stay so wounded that it takes a time for them to heal and they are so broken inside that talking about the experience brings tears to their eyes. There have been many cases of rape due to religion.

On June 10 2019 an Indian court convicted six men on the counts of kidnapping and raping and then murdering a Muslim girl. This case reflected very bitter religious divisions and shows how far people will go in religious discrimination just to make their point. The girl’s age was only 8 years old. Her life had just started and she had so much to experience but it was all take away from her in a snap. The world has become a very cruel place and it is time we started taking an initiative against this. Discrimination of any kind is very low and it brings a person down so much that they get far worse than depressed. Their beliefs are attacked and the world has had enough of these hate crimes against religions. A special counsel consisting of representatives from all over the world should be made where the relationships are neutral and people think open mindedly. UN representatives are not so trustworthy after the whole Priyanka Chopra incident and so people with open minds must get together for the survival of this world as well as religions. Initiatives must be taken such as a helpline solely for discrimination based issues and how people can file reports with the hope of having the suspector criminal getting caught.

Education should be widely given which makes people more aware about how sacred religion and belief is to everyone. It should also be more spread such as in newspapers, magazines, TVs and there should be proper movies released in cinemas on them as the entertainment industry has a very large audience that pretty much gets influenced by whatever they watch. The world needs to be a place where everyone can practice whatever religion they want to as not everyone can agree on the same thing. It is time someone stood up for those oppressed or those discriminated as no one can imagine what it must be to be in their place. It is truly something I myself cannot imagine.