Dr. William Inboden analyzes the relationship between religious intolerance and persecution and national security threats. Using historical context and contemporary examples, Dr. Inboden explains that a country that engages in religious persecution is more likely to be a security threat and “there is not a single nation in the world that both respects religious freedom and poses a security threat to the United States.”

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Dr. William Inboden analyzes the relationship between religious intolerance and persecution and national security threats. Using historical context and contemporary examples, Dr. Inboden explains that a country that engages in religious persecution is more likely to be a security threat and “there is not a single nation in the world that both respects religious freedom and poses a security threat to the United States.”

Religious freedom is particularly useful for analyzing national security when compared to freedom of press or speech because of its focus on transcendence, individual and communal components, and the focus on consequences for actions on earth in relation to the afterlife. Looking at jihadist terrorism, theocratic regimes and autocratic powers, Dr. Inboden distinguishes the differentiation between religion and state and the political theology of the majority religion. “Integrationist” states combine both aspects, bringing “religion under the tight control or suppression of the state.” Importantly, states that do differentiate between religion and the state have much lower levels of political violence.

Dr. Inboden sees three implications of religious-freedom policies: as a diagnostic tool or indicator of security policies, an ameliorating force in existing security threats, and as a tool of prevention for future security threats. Although President Obama and has highlighted freedom of religion as a key issue in the Islamic world, it has still yet to become an integral part of security policies.