Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me: Why Governments Discriminate Against Minorities

In his book Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me: Why Governments Discriminate Against Minorities (Cambridge University Press, 2020), Jonathan Fox, Yehuda Avner Professor of Religion and Politics at Bar-Ilan University, examines the causes of government-based religious discrimination (GRD) against 771 minorities in 183 countries over a 25-year period, while offering possible reasons for why some minorities are discriminated against more than others.

Fox illustrates the complexities inherent in the causes of GRD, which can emerge from secular ideologies, religious monopolies, anti-cult policies, security concerns, and more. He finds that Western democracies tend to discriminate more than Christian-majority countries in the developing world, whether they are democratic or not.

Cosponsored with the Kellogg Institute for International Studies.