The Importance Of Hate Crimes

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There are many different types of crimes, that happen all over the world. One of these types of crimes is hate crimes based on religion. These crimes usually happen between members of opposing religions, like Christianity and Islam. There are several different components that go into hate crimes and several concepts on how to prevent or limit these crimes. Hate crimes are crimes motivated by racial, sexual, or other prejudice, and typically involve violence. Religious hate crimes come from a pre-conceived prejudice against a religion that varies from a person’s own belief. These hate crimes happen because the people or societies committing them are not resisting ethnocentrism. This is because people of one religion view their religion as superior …show more content…

The perpetrators of religion-based hate crimes do not understand the religions they are committing violent acts towards. These people or societies believe they understand the religion and are right in executing crimes against it, but what they do not understand is although their religions are different, they are still similar. There are many similarities between different religions, but it is not the similarities that give way to violence, only the differences and how the religion as a whole is interpreted. Everyone interprets information differently, so if a person is trying to understand a religion, he or she is not a part of, it can be interpreted inaccurately. By interpreting the religion incorrectly, the societies feel justified in committing hate crimes because they view the religion in a skewed manner and assume that the religion is corrupt and not peaceful but is full of hate and dangerously impure …show more content…

Schools should teach children cultural and religious acceptance to prevent them from judging cultures and religions through ethnocentrism, instead of cultural relativism. By creating government programs, that state all schools must educate their children on cultural and religious acceptance, the majority of children will grow up with a better understanding of different cultures and religions. These children will not grow up thinking their religion is better than another and decide to eradicate people whose religious views differ from their own. Also, children should be taught the similarities and differences between religions, so they have a better understanding of someone else’s religion. Education breeds acceptance and by teaching kids to accept that people have different religious beliefs, it should help limit and reduce violent hate crimes based on religion. It will also help to prevent these hate crimes that stem from fear of a certain religious group because the educated children will grow up with an understanding that one individual is not a complete representative of an entire group. Another way to resolve these crimes is by explaining that one religion is not better than another and that while religion is important it should not be used to control people. Religion is supposed to be a way to explain the unknown, not a way to control people

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