"More research is needed on how we can build a society in which everyone can freely express their beliefs and practice their religion without feeling threatened". This was stated by Daniel Moulin, Ph.D., Ph. Oxford University and researcher of project 'Religion and Civil Society' of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS), the center of Humanities and social sciences of the University of Navarra.

Dr. Moulin pointed out that the field of sociological study of prejudice began in the 1960s with the work of Gordon Allport of Harvard University, and therefore "is still young". In that sense, he suggested that one of the areas that could be explored further is the idea that "in the Western world, prejudice towards Christianity is considered more acceptable than towards other religions that are in the minority.

According to him, the starting problem is the definition of prejudice: "If I don't agree agreement with someone's beliefs, is it prejudice or my right to disagree agreement with someone's beliefs? To shed light on topic, he drew a parallel with discrimination on other grounds. "It is clearly rejected to have a bad opinion of a person because of their race, but the same is not true when the grounds are religious beliefs," he stressed.

Strengthening of a minority group

The researcher of the ICS stressed that, nevertheless, prejudice towards a minority group can make it "grow stronger", since the people who make it up "create stronger ties among themselves to face the threat", he concluded.

The British expert made these statements on the occasion of the seminar that he gave under the degree scroll 'Anti-Christian Prejudice in England'. The activity was framed in the research that he carries out to understand the prejudices that exist towards religions in England.

Daniel Moulin joined ICS in September 2014 after a postdoctoral stay at the University of Geneva (Switzerland). His research focuses on the areas of Philosophy of the Education, spirituality, Education intercultural and religion. The prestigious publishing house Bloomsbury published in 2011 his latest book, Leo Tolstoy. Between 2011 and 2013 he was director of Somerville College Chapel (University of Oxford) in the UK.