Part III | Expanded Analysis
Category E | Perspectives
Topic 23 | Religious freedom is a canary in the coal mine
Religious freedom is sometimes called “a canary in the coal mine,” to illustrate that when religious freedom is violated, other human rights are also at risk.628 Coal miners often carried canaries with them in underground mines because the canaries were more sensitive to poisonous gases.629 A canary that lost consciousness or died was evidence of an unhealthy environment that posed danger to people as well. Similarly, violations of religious freedom are an early warning sign that other important rights and freedoms are also in jeopardy.630
Such has been true throughout history: Excessive government control over religion, particularly when it involves prohibitions of religion or forced adherence to a religion, is generally accompanied by a decline in other fundamental rights locally, nationally, and/or internationally.631 Put another way, when either “government dominates religion” or “religion dominates government,” religious freedom is hampered, signaling that other rights are at risk.632
One human right at risk, all human rights at risk
Human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated.633 Therefore, if one right is violated, all other rights are at risk of being violated. Conversely, if a fundamental right is upheld, it facilitates the preservation and enjoyment of other rights. This also means that if a religious conscientious objection is not recognized as a basis for legal accommodations, other exceptions or special situations may not be recognized either.
The following two principles illustrate this overarching principle of interdependent human rights.
- Religious intolerance and forced homogeneity lead to multiple rights violations.
Forced homogeneity, as often instituted by oppressive regimes—including religious homogeneity—opens the floodgates for further human rights violations.634 Because oppressive authoritarian governments, by definition, seek social and political control, multifarious loyalties are often seen as a threat to their dominance.635
Examples of intolerant authoritarian leaders who are threatened by diverse subjects can be identified throughout history. Abrahamic faiths share the story of the infant Moses escaping Pharaoh’s order that all male Israelite babies be killed.636 The authoritarian Pharaoh likely committed this genocide out of fear of losing power to the growing Israelite population, but Egypt’s discrimination against ancient Israelites combined racial, religious, and nationalistic views that led to violations of human rights. The multiplicity of bases for human rights violations demonstrates that human rights are interconnected and interrelated: violation of one right (e.g., right to freedom of religion) will lead to the collapse of others (e.g., rights to nondiscrimination, life, liberty, and more).637
- Religious and intellectual freedom resist homogeneity, promote progress, and reinforce other rights.
Freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) and intellectual freedom are inextricably linked by their bases in autonomy of thought. In the absence of freedom of thought, belief, expression, or conscience, dictators can employ repression and propaganda to force uniformity in their subjects.638 However, a human mind cannot function fully and rationally under compulsion, and thus, development in oppressive nations is often stifled.639 Economic measures shed light on the consequences of intellectually oppressive regimes: where intellectual rights are not upheld, countries usually suffer from lower health, innovation, GNP, standard of living, and product quality.640 These consequences implicate rights such as rights to education and an adequate standard of living.641 Where the indivisible rights of intellectual freedom and religious freedom are protected, thinkers are free to innovate and achieve a nation’s potential.642
Case studies
Many examples of excessive government control over religion, which have raised a warning for additional violations of fundamental rights, have occurred in recent decades.
- China: Government dominating religion
China presents a modern example of “a canary in the coal mine” warning that was not properly heeded. In 1954, Mao Zedong’s response to the Dalai Lama’s visit to China served as an early warning that any allowance of religious freedom was at risk: “But, of course, religion is poison. It has two great defects. It undermines the race [and] retards the progress of the country. Tibet and Mongolia have been poisoned by it.”643
Twelve years later, at the beginning of China’s cultural revolution, Maoist leadership wiped out the “four olds”: old things, old ideas, old customs, and old habits.644 This constituted, in essence, an attack on religion, and all remnants of cultural and religious practices, festivals, ceremonies, and dress were suppressed.645 Red guards shattered Confucian family altars and converted temples, mosques, and churches for secular use.646 Believers were imprisoned.647
Alongside the right to FoRB, other important rights were violated, including the right to privacy, right to freedom of speech and expression, and right to education (with schools and universities shuttered from 1966 to 1976).648 In 1968, Mao launched a political purge and sent scores of diplomats to work in the countryside in re-education camps.649
Predictably, Mao’s public disdain for religion was not adequately heeded as a threat to multiple rights, and his views led to a cultural and social purge that helped him expand his power at the expense of a broad array of fundamental human rights.
- Iran: Religion dominating government
While the right to FoRB can be restricted by government domination of religion in the form of government bans, it can also be restricted by religion’s domination of government, particularly when a state religion is instituted and other religions are banned or face persecution. Unfortunately, examples both historical and modern abound. More recent examples include Myanmar’s persecution of Rohingya Muslims, Pakistan’s restrictions on the rights of Ahmadiyya Muslims, and Iran’s arbitrary arrests of Christians and Bahá’ís.650
Religious freedom restrictions served as a canary in the coal mine for Iranian women during Iran’s revolution in 1979. Initially, Iranian women played a large role in protests to overthrow the government and rallied in the streets in opposition to the Shah, in a quest for greater freedoms, including religious freedom.651 However, Islamic slogans overtook the demonstrations and a mandatory Islamic dress code for women was announced on 7 March.652 Few understood his meaning when the future Ayatollah Khomeini promised that women would “have a role in the society within an Islamic framework,” and many women continued to support dress and other restrictions as a means to an end.653
However, once rights began to quickly dissipate, thousands of women marched in protest.654 It was too late: Ayatollah Khomeini rapidly seized power and made Iran an Islamic State on 1 April.655 What began as the establishment of a religious state that restricted rights to FoRB has morphed into an authoritarian state that restricts additional rights, including rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly; freedom from torture, arbitrary detention, and unfair trials; and freedom from discrimination.656 After nearly half a century of oppressive rule, women continue to fight for basic rights that have been denied under Iran’s interpretation of constitutionalized sharia.657
Conclusion
James Madison warned, “[I]t is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties.”658 The right to freedom of religion or belief is often the first target of those who would seek to limit other human rights. Thus, it is proper and wise to regard religious freedom as a canary in the coal mine. In whatever political or social context, we should watch carefully, take alarm, and raise the alarm at the first signs of “poisonous gases” in the form of unlawful restrictions on religious freedom, to help preserve our full array of human rights.
References
628. Toolkit Topic 23 (Religious freedom is a canary in the coal mine) was drafted principally by Chloe Atkins, 2023 ICLRS Summer Fellow.
629. Kat Eschner, What Happened to the Canary in the Coal Mine? The Story of How the Real-Life Animal Helper Became Just a Metaphor, SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE (updated Mar. 7, 2024), https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-happened-canary-coal-mine-story-how-real-life-animal-helper-became-just-metaphor-180961570.
630. Michael K. Young, The Relevance of Religious Freedom, 2 LIFE IN THE LAW 119, 121 (Dec. 15, 2009), https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/life_law_vol2/16.
631. Alan W. Dowd, The Canary in the Coalmine, AMERICAN LEGION MAGAZINE (Feb. 1, 2016), https://sagamoreinstitute.org/the-canary-in-the-coalmine.
632. Id.
633. Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, UN OHCHR (June 25, 1993), https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/vienna-declaration-and-programme-action (last visited Dec. 2024).
634. Elliott Abrams, The Persecution of Christians as a Worldwide Phenomenon: Testimony of Elliott Abrams, 3 INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORTS 3 (Mar. 2014), https://iirf.global/wp-content/uploads/reports/iirf_reports_2014_3.pdf.
635. Young, supra, at 121.
636. Joshua J. Mark, Moses, WORLD HISTORY ENCYCLOPEDIA (Sept. 28, 2016), https://www.worldhistory.org/Moses.
637. Id.; Vienna Declaration, supra, § I(5) (declaring human rights to be universal, indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated).
638. Tara Smith, What Good Is Religious Freedom? Locke, Rand, and the Non-religious Case for Respecting It, 69 ARKANSAS LAW REVIEW 943, 956 (2017).
639. Id. at 964.
640. Id. at 960.
641. See G.A. 217 A (III), Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 26 (Dec. 10, 1948), https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights; International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, Dec. 16, 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3, art. 11, 13, https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-covenant-economic-social-and-cultural-rights.
642. Smith, supra, at 982.
643. Tendzin Choegyal, The Truth About Tibet, 28(4) IMPRIMIS 1, 3 (1999), https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/the-truth-about-tibet.
644. Tillman Durdin, China Transformed by Elimination of ‘Four Olds,’ THE NEW YORK TIMES (May 19, 1971), https://www.nytimes.com/1971/05/19/archives/china-transformed-by-elimination-of-four-olds.html.
645. Id.
646. Id.
647. The Cultural Revolution (Timeline), https://ci.ioe.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/the-cultural-revolution.pdf (last visited Dec. 2024).
648. Stefanie Lamb, Introduction to the Cultural Revolution, SPICE: Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (Dec. 2005), https://spice.fsi.stanford.edu/docs/introduction_to_the_cultural_revolution (adapted from JONATHAN D. SPENCE, THE SEARCH FOR MODERN CHINA (2001)); Albert Francis Park, Scars from Mao-Era School Shutdown Have Not Vanished Yet, Says Park, HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, https://iems.ust.hk/updates/media-coverage/2020/park-mao-era-school-shutdown-change-education-in-china-ozy (last visited Dec. 2024).
649. Peter Martin, The Time Chinese Diplomats Were Sent to the Camps, FOREIGN POLICY (July 1, 2021), https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/07/01/china-camps-cultural-revolution-diplomats.
650. Abrams, supra, at 3, 7, 13, 14.
651. The Stolen Revolution: Iranian Women of 1979, CBC RADIO (Mar. 8, 2019), https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/the-stolen-revolution-iranian-women-of-1979-1.5048382.
652. Sepideh Zamani, Iranian Daughters: Struggling for the Rights Their Mothers Lost in the Revolution, WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY (Jan. 13, 2023), https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/iranian-daughters-struggling-rights-their-mothers-lost-revolution.
653. Id. (emphasis added).
654. Janet Afary & Kevin B. Anderson, Woman, Life, Freedom: The Origins of the Uprising in Iran, Winter 2023, 70(1) DISSENT 82, 83, https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/women-life-freedom-iran-uprising-origins.
655. Janet Afary, Iranian Revolution, ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA (May 29, 2023), https://www.britannica.com/event/Iranian-Revolution.
656. Iran 2022, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/iran/report-iran.
657. See generally Afary & Anderson, supra.
658. James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, [ca. 20 June] 1785, NATIONAL ARCHIVES: FOUNDERS ONLINE, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-08-02-0163 (last visited Dec. 2024).