Right of Religious Freedom

The term ‘right of religious freedom’ with reference to religions of minority communities connotes tolerance of other religions, as well as accepting and treating the religious beliefs of minorities as equal to those held by the majority. This involves according minority communities the right to preserve and develop their religions. Even though trends in recent years in many Western jurisdictions clearly indicate that the concept of religious freedom is rapidly being undermined by the relatively new and extreme view of freedom from religion, the system currently in place itself is not free from religious bias towards minority communities. This is obvious from relatively innocuous religious preferences such as the Sunday Blue Laws to outright extreme suppression as in the Mormon Christian Marriages cases. It is also clearly enunciated in Justice Story’s famous words ‘Christianity is our common law’ and readily visible in Oppenheim’s view of international law as based on Christian morality or the customs of the Christian civilized state.