Secular Violence

The use of secular ideology to justify physical, psychological, or structural harm against religious or spiritual individuals and communities. Secular violence can include state‑sponsored repression (e.g., banning religious symbols, closing places of worship), social ostracism (e.g., firing someone for wearing a cross), or online harassment campaigns that target believers as “delusional.” Secular violence often claims to be defending reason or women’s rights or modernity, but it functions as persecution, denying the fundamental human right to belief and practice.

Example: “The government banned headscarves in universities, claiming they were ‘unscientific symbols’—secular violence, using the rhetoric of modernity to suppress religious freedom.”

Secular Alienation

The feeling of being excluded, misunderstood, or devalued experienced by religious or spiritual people in secular-dominated spaces (academia, media, tech, certain online communities). Secular alienation occurs when one’s beliefs are treated as embarrassing, as mental illness, or as a sign of low intelligence; when religious holidays are ignored; when spiritual language is mocked. Over time, believers may hide their faith, avoid certain conversations, or leave spaces that feel hostile. This alienation is a form of epistemic injustice, where a whole dimension of human experience is rendered invisible or shameful.

Example: “He stopped mentioning his church community at work after colleagues laughed at him—secular alienation, learning that his identity was not welcome in supposedly neutral spaces.”

Secular Violence by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal April 16, 2026