International Institute for Religious Freedom

Stop Looking Only for a Religious Motive

This report is a reprint from: Petri, D. P . (2025, December 16). Stop Looking Only for a Religious Motive. Institute for Global Engagement. https://globalengage.org/?p=3559

In the religious freedom field, when a violent incident happens, we frequently hear the same question: “Is this really religious persecution?” What they usually mean is: “Was this person or group deliberately targeted with an explicit reli-
gious motive?”