Editing Religious persecution (section)

===Sociological view===
From a [[Sociology|sociological]] perspective, the identity formation of strong [[social group]]s such as those which are generated by [[nationalism]], [[Ethnic group|ethnicity]], or religion, is a causal aspect of practices of persecution. {{ill|Hans G. Kippenberg|de}} says that it is these communities, which can be a majority or a minority, that generate violence.<ref name="Kippenberg">{{cite book|author-last=Kippenberg|author-first=Hans G. |editor1-last=Raschle |editor1-first=Christian R. |editor2-last=Dijkstra |editor2-first=Jitse H. F. |title=Religious Violence in the Ancient World From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity |date=2020 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781108849210|chapter=1}}</ref>{{rp|8, 19, 24}} Since the development of identity involves 'what we are not' as much as 'what we are', there are grounds for the fear that tolerance of 'what we are not' can contribute to the erosion of identity.<ref>Jinkins, Michael. Christianity, Tolerance and Pluralism: A Theological Engagement with Isaiah Berlin's Social Theory. United Kingdom, Taylor & Francis, 2004. Chapter 3. no page #s available</ref> [[Brian J. Grim]] and [[Roger Finke]] say that the perception that plurality is dangerous leads to religious persecution.<ref name="Grim and Finke">{{cite book |last1=Grim |first1=Brian J. |last2=Finke |first2=Roger |title=The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the Twenty-First Century |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781139492416}}</ref>{{rp|2}} Both the state and any dominant religion, share the concern that to "leave religion unchecked and without adequate controls will result in the uprising of religions that are dangerous to both state and citizenry," and this concern gives both the dominant religion and the state motives for restricting religious activity.<ref name="Grim and Finke"/>{{rp|2, 6}} Grim and Finke say it is specifically this religious regulation that leads to religious persecution.<ref name="GrimandFinkejournal">{{cite journal |last1=Grim |first1=BJ |last2=Finke |first2=R. |title=Religious Persecution in Cross-National Context: Clashing Civilizations or Regulated Religious Economies? |journal=American Sociological Review |date=2007 |volume=72 |issue=4 |pages=633–658 |doi=10.1177/000312240707200407 |s2cid=145734744 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/000312240707200407#articleCitationDownloadContainer}}</ref> R.I. Moore says that persecution during the [[Middle Ages]] "provides a striking illustration of the classic [[Deviance (sociology)|deviance theory]], [which is based on identity formation], as it was propounded by the father of sociology, [[Émile Durkheim]]".<ref name="Moore">{{cite book|last=Moore|first=R. I.|title=The Formation of a Persecuting Society|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|location=Malden, Massachusetts|edition=second|year=2007|isbn=978-1-4051-2964-0}}</ref>{{rp|100}} Persecution is also, often, part of a larger conflict involving emerging states as well as established states in the process of redefining their national identity.<ref name="Grim and Finke"/>{{rp|xii, xiii}}

James L.Gibson<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gibson |first1=James L. |title=James L. Gibson |url=https://polisci.wustl.edu/people/james-l-gibson |website=Department of Political Science |date=25 March 2019 |publisher=Washington University in St.Louis Arts and Sciences |quote=Sidney W. Souers Professor of Government}}</ref> adds that the greater the attitudes of loyalty and solidarity to the group identity, and the more the benefits to belonging there are perceived to be, the more likely a social identity will become intolerant of challenges.<ref name="Gibson">Gibson, James L., and Gouws, Amanda. Overcoming Intolerance in South Africa: Experiments in Democratic Persuasion. United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, 2005.</ref>{{rp|93}}<ref>Heisig, James W. Philosophers of Nothingness: An Essay on the Kyoto School. United States, University of Hawai'i Press, 2001.</ref>{{rp|64}} Combining a strong social identity with the state, increases the benefits, therefore it is likely persecution from that social group will increase.<ref name="Grim and Finke"/>{{rp|8}} Legal restriction from the state relies on social cooperation, so the state in its turn must protect the social group that supports it, increasing the likelihood of persecution from the state as well.<ref name="Grim and Finke"/>{{rp|9}} Grim and Finke say their studies indicate that the higher the degree of religious freedom, the lower the degree of violent religious persecution.<ref name="Grim and Finke"/>{{rp|3}} "When religious freedoms are denied through the regulation of religious profession or practice, violent religious persecution and conflict increase."<ref name="Grim and Finke"/>{{rp|6}}

Perez Zagorin writes "According to some philosophers, tolerance is a moral virtue; if this is the case, it would follow that intolerance is a vice. But virtue and vice are qualities solely of individuals, and intolerance and persecution [in the Christian Middle Ages] were social and collective phenomena sanctioned by society and hardly questioned by anyone. Religious intolerance and persecution, therefore, were not seen as vices, but as necessary and salutary for the preservation of religious truth and orthodoxy and all that was seen to depend upon them."<ref name="Zagori">{{cite book |last1=Zagorin |first1=Perez |title=How the Idea of Religious Toleration Came to the West |date=2013 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9781400850716 |page=16}}</ref> This view of persecution is not limited to the Middle Ages. As Christian R. Raschle<ref>{{cite web |title=Christian R Raschle |url=https://umontreal.academia.edu/ChristianRaschle |website=academia.edu |publisher=University of Montreal |quote=Université de Montréal, Histoire, Faculty Member}}</ref> and Jitse H. F. Dijkstra,<ref>{{cite web |title=AIA Lecturer: Jitse H.F. Dijkstra |url=https://www.archaeological.org/lecturer/jitse-h-f-dijkstra/ |website=Lecture Program |publisher=Archaeological Institute of America}}</ref> say: "Religious violence is a complex phenomenon that exists in all places and times."<ref name="ancient violence">{{cite book |editor1-last=Raschle |editor1-first=Christian R. |editor2-last=Dijkstra |editor2-first=Jitse H. F. |title=Religious Violence in the Ancient World From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity |date=2020 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781108849210}}</ref>{{rp|4, 6}}

In the [[Ancient history|ancient societies]] of [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]], [[Ancient Greece|Greece]] and [[Ancient Rome|Rome]], torture was an accepted aspect of the legal system.<ref name="Stanley08">{{cite book |last1=Stanley |first1=Elizabeth |title=Torture, Truth and Justice The Case of Timor-Leste |date=2008 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781134021048}}</ref>{{rp|22}} [[Gillian Clark (historian)|Gillian Clark]] says violence was taken for granted in the fourth century as part of both war and punishment; torture from the ''carnifex,'' the professional torturer of the Roman legal system, was an accepted part of that system.<ref name="Clark2006">{{cite book |last1=Clark |first1=Gillian |editor1-last=Drake |editor1-first=H. A. |title=Violence in Late Antiquity: Perceptions and Practices |date=2006 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0754654988 |chapter=11: Desires of the Hangman: Augustine on legitimized violence}}</ref>{{rp|137}} Except for a few rare exceptions, such as the Persian empire under [[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus]] and [[Darius I|Darius]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ezquerra |first1=Jaime Alvar |title=History's first superpower sprang from ancient Iran |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/magazine/2016/09-10/dawn-of-ancient-persian-empire/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200107130251/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/magazine/2016/09-10/dawn-of-ancient-persian-empire/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=7 January 2020 |website=History Magazine |date=6 January 2020 |publisher=National Geographic |access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref> Denis Lacorne says that examples of religious tolerance in ancient societies, "from ancient Greece to the Roman empire, medieval Spain to the Ottoman Empire and the Venetian Republic", are not examples of tolerance in the modern sense of the term.<ref name="Lacorne2019">{{cite book |last1=Lacorne |first1=Denis |title=The Limits of Tolerance: Enlightenment Values and Religious Fanaticism (Religion, Culture, and Public Life) |date=2019 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0231187145 |page=1}}</ref>

The sociological view regards religious intolerance and persecution as largely social processes that are determined more by the context within which the social community exists than anything else.<ref name="Dees">Dees, Richard H. Trust and Toleration. N.p., Taylor & Francis, 2004. Chapter 4. no page #s available</ref><ref name="Gibson"/>{{rp|94}}<ref name="Kippenberg"/>{{rp|19, 24}} When governments ensure equal freedom for all, there is less persecution.<ref name="Grim and Finke"/>{{rp|8}}