What drives religious intolerance?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 25 April 2019
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Is religious intolerance on the rise, and if so, what is behind it?
In Sri Lanka this week, people claiming to be acting out of religious belief killed more than 350 people, mostly of a different faith – in this case Christians.
Religious intolerance is a theme which has surfaced in the news with some frequency in recent years – be it the persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar, the Yazidis in Iraq, the Uighurs in China or numerous blasphemy trials in Pakistan.
On this week's programme, David Aaronovitch asks whether religious intolerance – be it intolerance of religions, or by religions - is actually on the rise.
If so, who is leading this – governments? Nationalist political movements? Or the faithful themselves?
CONTRIBUTORS:
Alan Keenan, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group
Alan Cooperman, Director of Religion research, Pew Research Centre
Karen Armstrong, author of The Lost Art of Scripture: Rescuing the Sacred Texts
Oliver McTernan, founder of the conflict resolution organisation, Forward Thinking
Robin Gill, Emeritus Professor of Applied Theology at the University of Kent
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.2 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Oronovich. |
| 0:08.2 | The idea is that you and I step into a large room |
| 0:11.1 | crammed with computers, maps, reference books and top experts |
| 0:15.2 | whose only job is to give us the most thorough briefing possible |
| 0:18.4 | on the big questions of the day. |
| 0:21.2 | And our question today is, is religious intolerance on the rise? |
| 0:26.0 | And if you enjoy this podcast, you might enjoy other editions of the briefing room, |
| 0:29.4 | which are all available on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:32.0 | With the Chinese giant tech company, Huawei, in the news again, |
| 0:35.1 | you might find our recent briefing on that company and its |
| 0:38.1 | relationship with the Chinese government rather interesting. |
| 0:48.9 | In Sri Lanka this week, people claiming to be acting out of religious belief killed hundreds of people, |
| 0:55.2 | mostly of a different faith, in this case, Christians. Religious intolerance is a theme which |
| 1:00.8 | has surfaced in the news with some frequency in recent years, be it the persecution of the |
| 1:05.3 | Rohingya in Myanmar, the Yazidis in Iraq, the Uyghurs in China, and numerous blasphemy trials in Pakistan. |
| 1:12.9 | Today, I want to know, insofar as I can, whether religious intolerance, intolerance of religions or by religions, |
| 1:20.2 | is actually on the rise, and if so, who is leading this? Governments, nationalist political movements, |
| 1:27.3 | or the faithful themselves. Step |
| 1:29.7 | inside the briefing room and we'll try to find out. First, let's turn to Sri Lanka to find out |
| 1:40.7 | more about the relationships between religions on the island where the roots of extremism might be and why the attack happened now. |
| 1:48.9 | Earlier, I was joined in the briefing room by Alan Keenan, |
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