Patterns of Discrimination

Abstract

This chapter discusses what the authors mean by discrimination and how they measure it. It also provides a detailed discussion and analysis of the levels of discrimination against Jews compared to other religious minorities. While government-based discrimination against Jews is below average, societal discrimination is higher than against other religious minorities. However, levels of discrimination against Jews are not uniform and range from none in a few countries to extremely high levels in others. From an empirical standpoint this is beneficial since this variation allows for the cross-country testing of the causes of religious discrimination in the subsequent chapters. This basic non-causal analysis reveals some interesting patterns, including that a good portion of government-based discrimination against Jews in the West is caused by secular-based opposition to practices common to both Jews and Muslims, including infant circumcision and ritual slaughter of meat (kosher and halal meat).