The Politics Of Religious Outbidding

In many contexts today it is clear that religious minorities will face escalating discrimination and persecution. The reason is simple: threatened political elites often seek support or attempt to demobilize opposition by reframing secular conflicts as religious conflicts in a process of religious outbidding. Religious outbidding has led not only to intensified discrimination in employment, worship, and education, but to large-scale violence, including civil war. In Muslim-majority countries, elites are increasing relying on two options to bolster their credibility: 1) introducing and intensifying shari'a law; and then (2) scapegoating those they deemed as threats to their vision of the role of religion in public life.