Elimination of Ethnic and Religious Discrimination Essay

The word discrimination can be defined as, â€Å"treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit.† One large type of discrimination in the world of today is religious and ethnic discrimination. Religious and ethnic discrimination is when someone discriminates against another person based solely on their religious beliefs or background and their ethnicity. Unfortunately, religious and ethnic discrimination are problems which stretch across the globe and occur in almost every country. One of the most well known cases of religious discrimination was the Holocaust. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with it, the Holocaust was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II. The Holocaust was led by Nazi-leader Adolf Hitler; he discriminated and disliked the Jews merely because they were Jewish. Rather than actually getting to know any of them and then judging their character once he was a bit more familiar with them, he made a superficial judgment, decided he disliked them, started to discriminate against them, and eventually led the Holocaust. He merely disliked and discriminated against them because of their religion, regardless of who they really were, that it pure religious discrimination. A well known example of ethnic discrimination is the segregation that occurred in the USA during the 20th century, more specifically the early to mid 20th century. Segregation is, â€Å"the enforced separation of different racial groups in a country, community, or establishment.† Schools, living properties, and even playground are just small few of the large amount that was segregated at that time. Although this delegation is not pleased to say it, there is religious and ethnic discrimination in Tunisia as well. Tunisian singer Salah Misbah says that he is constantly discriminated against because of the dark color of his skin, supposedly having been called names such as, â€Å"a dirty slave†. There are also some cases of religious discrimination in the constitution of Tunisia. It declares the country’s determination to adhere to the teachings of Islam, stipulates that Islam is the official state religion, and that the President be Muslim, therefore discriminating against all who are not Muslim. Also, The Government does not permit the establishment of political parties on the basis of religion and prohibits proselytizing, which means attempting to convert someone to your faith, by non-Muslims. Tunisia recognizes that discrimination of any kind is wrong, especially these two, and, for that reason welcomes the possible solutions to this problem. Although religious and ethnic discrimination may seem like a difficult problem to handle, there are solutions. Unjust discrimination of any kind can normally be linked with poor education. If children are taught well about other traditions, religions, and cultures they are less likely to discriminate against people of those backgrounds. Another, slightly harsher, possible solution could be for the government to adopt a no-tolerance policy in relation to religious and racial crimes. Out of fear of being punished, it might dissuade those who are inclined to commit religious and racial crimes. In conclusion, if the necessary education is given, and laws or tolerance polices set in place, it may decrease the amount of religious and ethnic discrimination around the globe. Unfortunately, try as we might it seems as if religious and ethnic discrimination are problems which may never be fully and completely eliminated and eradicated, but that will not stop Tunisia, and hopefully the rest of the UN, from trying our best to do so! Sources: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/discrimination http://www.politicsforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=124377 http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2007/90222.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/segregation