Racial tension used to be the main reason for  persecution, abuse, torture and killings of minorities, but not any longer. According to a recent report by the Minority Rights Group International, the targeting of minorities on religious grounds is increasingly becoming a bigger problem than racial discrimination.

In most regions poverty is increasingly linked to religion. Minorities in all four corners of the world - and particularly Muslims in the west -  have been targets of increased state control as well as nationalist campaigns waged by militant or right-wing groups.

Mark Latimer, Director of Minority Rights Group International says we haven’t seen religious persecution on this scale since the dark ages.

Islamic fundamentalism
Mr Latimer sees the problem of religious intolerance as a new way of looking at differences between communities that have already existed for a long time. He names the situation in Russia's South Caucasus as one example.

“There have been ethnic problems in that region for a long time. The Chechnya war of the 1990s shows that clearly. At the time this conflict was looked at as an ethnic-seperatist war. Now Russia condemns what's going on in Chechnya as Islamic fundamentalism and is launching attacks in the name of countering terrorism.”

The report concludes that the poorest communities are increasingly defined along religious lines. In Europe the poorest communities are often the Muslim ones. The current political situation in the Netherlands is a good example of what is going on in the rest of the continent, says Mr Latimer.

Dutch example
Right-wing MP Geert Wilders wants to outlaw the Qur'an and tax women who wear head scarfs and his anti-Islam Freedom party has seen a rapid growth in popularity, winning 23 seats in last month's parliamentary election.

Many feel 9/11 was the catalyst for strong anti-Muslim sentiment in the west, but Mr Latimer says the attacks were merely a turning point.

“From a Western perspective the Muslim communities in Europe and the US came under strong scrutiny after the World Trade Centre attacks. The feeling of many Muslims around the world was that their communities were being targeted. Ever since 9/11 we are seeing widespread religious profiling, especially when people cross borders or enter countries through airports. 9/11 gave the west the ‘justification’ of hardening its attitude towards an already unpopular religious group.”

Infidels
But it's not just Muslims encountering increasing bad feeling. The Minority Rights Group International report talks about a mirror effect around the world. Non-Muslim groups in Muslim countries are experiencing very similar issues.

Mr Latimer points out  that religious minorities in Iraq like Christians, the Yezidi and the Mandian, are constantly targeted by armed militant groups because they are non-Muslims and are therefore considered infidels by the Muslim majority.

“Every time there is a major religious controversy in Europe, for example the publications of the Danish Muhammed cartoons, Christians are abused and killed in Iraq. So there is a direct correlation between European religious controversy and attacks on Christians in Muslim countries. These effects go around the world and make a very dangerous cocktail.”