Speaking at a side event Wednesday hosted by the European Union on countering religious hatred while respecting human rights, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion or Belief, Mr. Heiner Bielefeldt, drew upon Buddhism in Sri Lanka to highlight that emboldening identity through religion could cause detrimental effects on rights of other communities.

He was speaking to themes in his address on Tuesday to the UN Human Rights Council earlier this week, and in the report he presented.

The Special Rapporteur states in his report:

“Governments may also instrumentalize religion as a means of shaping and reinforcing narrow concepts of national identity, tapping into feelings of religious belonging for the purposes of strengthening political loyalty.

“No religion or belief is per se immune from being utilized in such a way. Moreover, such instrumentalization of religion can occur in many different political or constitutional settings. Not only in countries that profess an official State religion but also in many formally secular States, religion has been harnessed to promote national unity and societal homogeneity through the invocation of one predominant cultural and/or religious legacy to which all citizens are supposed to relate in a positive manner.

“However, utilizing religion for the purposes of fostering national identity politics harbours serious risks of increased discrimination against members of religious minorities, as well as hostility towards those perceived as not belonging to the mainstream national-religious identity.

"Besides being viewed as religiously different, members of minorities, or individuals with dissenting religious views, may thus additionally be suspected of undermining national unity and endangering the future development of the nation.

“This can increase the likelihood of manifestations of collective religious hatred occurring in which national and religious hatred blend into one another.

“Typical target groups … are often stigmatized as not fitting into the prevailing religious and national makeup of the country or even characterized as potential traitors.

“[M]embers of long-standing religious minorities in a country, many of which simultaneously constitute ethnic minorities, can similarly be subject to stigmatization and accused of threatening national unity.”

In his address to the HRC, Mr. Bielefeldt said:

“Manifestations of collective hatred do not ‘erupt’ like a volcano, but they are caused by human beings, whose actions or omissions can set in motion a seemingly unstoppable negative dynamic in societies, which seems to be comparable to that caused by a natural catastrophe.

“Dissolving any exclusivist arrangements in the State’s relation to religions or beliefs and overcoming all forms of instrumentalization of religion for the purposes of national identity politics serves as a precondition for providing an open, inclusive framework in which religious or belief-related pluralism can unfold freely and without discrimination.”