Editing Religious persecution (section)

===Persecutions of atheists===
{{Main|Discrimination against atheists}}
Used before the 18th century as an insult,<ref name="laursen">{{cite book|last=Laursen|first=John Christian |author2=Nederman, Cary J. |title=Beyond the Persecuting Society: Religious Toleration Before the Enlightenment |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|year=1997|page=142|isbn= 978-0-8122-1567-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r2j6ZHgXZWkC&pg=PA142}}</ref> [[atheism]] was punishable by death in [[ancient Greece]] as well as in the [[Christendom|Christian]]{{disputed inline|no RS support|date=August 2020}} and [[Muslim world]]s during the [[Middle Ages]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}} Today, atheism is punishable by death in 12 countries ([[Afghanistan]], [[Iran]], [[Malaysia]], the [[Maldives]], [[Mauritania]]{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}, [[Nigeria]]{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}, [[Pakistan]], [[Qatar]], [[Saudi Arabia]], [[Somalia]], [[Sudan]] and [[Yemen]]), all of them Muslim-majority, while "the overwhelming majority" of the 193 United Nations member countries "at best discriminate against citizens who have no belief in a god and at worst they can jail them for offences which are dubbed blasphemy".<ref>{{cite news | title= Atheists face death in 13 countries, global discrimination: study| url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-religion-atheists/atheists-face-death-in-13-countries-global-discrimination-study-idUSBRE9B900G20131210|website=reuters.com| date=10 December 2013}}</ref><ref name="Jakarta Globe">{{cite web | title = 'God Does Not Exist' Comment Ends Badly for Indonesia Man | url = http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/god-does-not-exist-comment-ends-badly-for-indonesia-man/492370 | access-date = 20 January 2012}}</ref>

====State atheism====
{{Main|State atheism}}
State atheism has been defined by David Kowalewski as the official "promotion of [[atheism]]" by a government, typically by the active suppression of [[religious freedom]] and practice.<ref name="Kowalewski1980">{{Cite journal|last=Kowalewski|first=David|date=1980|title=Protest for Religious Rights in the USSR: Characteristics and Consequences |journal=The Russian Review |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=426–441 |doi=10.2307/128810 |jstor=128810 |issn=0036-0341}}</ref> It is a [[misnomer]] which is used in reference to a government's [[anti-clericalism]], its opposition to religious institutional power and influence, whether it is real or alleged, in all aspects of public and political life, including the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen.<ref>{{ cite encyclopedia| encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica | entry=Anticlericalism | date= 1998 | entry-url= https://www.britannica.com/topic/anticlericalism }}</ref>

State atheism was first practiced for a brief period in [[Revolutionary France]]{{Citation needed|date=November 2013}} and later it was practiced in [[Mexican Revolution|Revolutionary Mexico]] and [[Communist state|Marxist-Leninist state]]s. The Soviet Union had a long history of state atheism,<ref>{{ cite book | last= Greeley | first= Andrew M.| date= 2003 | title= Religion in Europe at the end of the second millennium: a sociological profile| place= New Brunswick, N.J.|publisher= Transaction Publishers | isbn =9780765801319 }}</ref> in which social success largely required individuals to profess atheism, stay away from churches and even vandalize them; this attitude was especially militant during the middle Stalinist era from 1929 to 1939.<ref>Pospielovsky, Dimitry. 1935. ''The Orthodox Church in the History of Russia'' Published 1998. St Vladimir's Seminary Press, p. 257, {{ISBN|0-88141-179-5}}.</ref><ref>Miner, Steven Merritt. 2003. ''Stalin's holy war religion, nationalism, and alliance politics, 1941–1945''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 70.</ref><ref>Davies, Norman. 1996. ''Europe: a history.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 962.</ref> The Soviet Union attempted to suppress religion over wide areas of its influence, including places like central Asia,<ref>[[#Pipes1989|Pipes (1989)]]:55.</ref> and the post-[[World War II]] [[Eastern bloc]]. One state within that bloc, the [[Socialist People's Republic of Albania]] under [[Enver Hoxha]], went so far as to officially ban all religious practices.<ref name="Elsie 2000:18">{{Cite book|last=Elsie|first=Robert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N_IXHrXIsYkC|title=A Dictionary of Albanian Religion, Mythology and Folk Culture|date=2001|publisher=C. Hurst|isbn=978-1-85065-570-1|page=18}}</ref>