Discriminatory secularism and attacks on religious minorities in Europe

Abstract In contrast to the ‘benign’ and ‘hostile’ forms of secularism found globally, many European states exhibit a distinctive model we term ‘discriminatory secularism’. In this arrangement, the state discriminates against certain minority religions while privileging religious majorities, creating an uneven religious playing field. Discriminatory secularism is justified not on the basis of religious ideology but on the basis of secularist principles. We argue that discriminatory secularism fosters a culture of hostility toward minority faith communities, increasing the likelihood of physical violence against them. Using cross-national data from European states between 2003 and 2017, we find that higher levels of discriminatory secularism are strongly associated with greater violence against religious minorities. These results remain robust across multiple model specifications and statistical techniques.