Disclaimer: I’m not an expert, but more familiar than most westerners.
Nigeria has a particularly rough history of religious extremism and totalitarianism. Even a lot of the indigenous beliefs were particularly intolerant (although this varied a lot, as Nigeria is an extremely diverse nation). These beliefs are rare nowadays, but still influence the culture and superstition. Adding to this, you have the influence of two abrahamic religions - in the north is a significant Islamic population, and in the south, Christianity largely imported (and enforced) by the British. I can’t speak for the Islamic beleifs, but as was the case in many other places, the Christian beliefs imported and enforced were generally more conservative and extreme, and less allowed to change.
As well as this, the brutality of both regional warlords, colonization, then multiple different military dictatorships that followed, and now an ineffective government where terrorism and organized crime are common, lead many people to become more religious. Even now with a (relatively) stable and calm government, churchs and mosks are still one of the only sources for social assistance and security in communities. At the same time, the central positon of these churches leads to them being very corrupt and greedy, often being run more like a cult than a church as we tend to think of one. At the same time, in the modern world, this greed mean they also take in a lot of money from influential “Christian” organizations, for example, a lot of very rich, very political Anerican mega-churches, and will happily bend their teachings to appease wealthy donors.
All of this has led to Nigeria being effectively a perfect storm for homophobia and religious discrimination despite being (relatively) free.
You are right that the US doesn’t have a monopoly on this, but they are almost certainly the front runner. There are plenty of European conservatives that donate to these “causes” and we can’t forget the Catholic church that has recently compared “gender ideology” to nuclear war. Russia has also been pushing conservative and anti LGBT views, though I’m not sure how much they are involved in Africa. I’m sure there are plenty of others that I’m leaving out.
In recent history it’s mostly the US. It’s a big country, and a rich country. Canadian evangelicals do their part, but will always play second fiddle just on population grounds, while Europe is just less religious. (The funny thing is that as a result of their success overseas, evangelical churches around here are getting pretty brown and diverse, which was not the plan)
Obviously this whole chart is outside of the colonial era.
Guess i can’t really argue wity that. What remains is the question whether the change was mainly driven by outside forces, or is mainly the result of internal pressure. We know who recently exported the most bigotry, but was it more influencial then the bigotry that was exported there earlier? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Obviously this whole chart is outside of the colonial era.
I agree 1993 was after the colonial era, but my point is that Nigeria wasn’t a blank slate that was never influenced by anything before they collected the data for this chart.
Reliable recent statistics do not exist; however, Nigeria is divided roughly in half between 50–55% Muslims, who live mostly in the northern regions, and 35–45% Christians, who live mostly in the southern regions
These countries have not had the most reliable reporting on topics like these, so data quality/availability is a likely reason for their absence.
Religious fundamentalism is strongly correlated with anti LGBT sentiment (at least with Abrahamic religions), so it is fair to assume that these countries are probably not very good. It is also worth noting that most of them are like they are due to meddling (or outright coups) by western nations. Iran was fairly progressive for its day before the CIA overthrew their democratically elected government.
wtf is going on in nigeria :D
Disclaimer: I’m not an expert, but more familiar than most westerners.
Nigeria has a particularly rough history of religious extremism and totalitarianism. Even a lot of the indigenous beliefs were particularly intolerant (although this varied a lot, as Nigeria is an extremely diverse nation). These beliefs are rare nowadays, but still influence the culture and superstition. Adding to this, you have the influence of two abrahamic religions - in the north is a significant Islamic population, and in the south, Christianity largely imported (and enforced) by the British. I can’t speak for the Islamic beleifs, but as was the case in many other places, the Christian beliefs imported and enforced were generally more conservative and extreme, and less allowed to change.
As well as this, the brutality of both regional warlords, colonization, then multiple different military dictatorships that followed, and now an ineffective government where terrorism and organized crime are common, lead many people to become more religious. Even now with a (relatively) stable and calm government, churchs and mosks are still one of the only sources for social assistance and security in communities. At the same time, the central positon of these churches leads to them being very corrupt and greedy, often being run more like a cult than a church as we tend to think of one. At the same time, in the modern world, this greed mean they also take in a lot of money from influential “Christian” organizations, for example, a lot of very rich, very political Anerican mega-churches, and will happily bend their teachings to appease wealthy donors.
All of this has led to Nigeria being effectively a perfect storm for homophobia and religious discrimination despite being (relatively) free.
My guess is the billions that the US has spent to export evangelical bigotry in Africa.
Not to disagree, but a lot of other places spent billions on exporting bigotry to Africa. Unfair to give the US all the credit.
You are right that the US doesn’t have a monopoly on this, but they are almost certainly the front runner. There are plenty of European conservatives that donate to these “causes” and we can’t forget the Catholic church that has recently compared “gender ideology” to nuclear war. Russia has also been pushing conservative and anti LGBT views, though I’m not sure how much they are involved in Africa. I’m sure there are plenty of others that I’m leaving out.
In recent history it’s mostly the US. It’s a big country, and a rich country. Canadian evangelicals do their part, but will always play second fiddle just on population grounds, while Europe is just less religious. (The funny thing is that as a result of their success overseas, evangelical churches around here are getting pretty brown and diverse, which was not the plan)
Obviously this whole chart is outside of the colonial era.
Guess i can’t really argue wity that. What remains is the question whether the change was mainly driven by outside forces, or is mainly the result of internal pressure. We know who recently exported the most bigotry, but was it more influencial then the bigotry that was exported there earlier? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I agree 1993 was after the colonial era, but my point is that Nigeria wasn’t a blank slate that was never influenced by anything before they collected the data for this chart.
Sure. That goes for India as well, though. This thread really seemed to be about who’s gotten worse.
Christianity
Reliable recent statistics do not exist; however, Nigeria is divided roughly in half between 50–55% Muslims, who live mostly in the northern regions, and 35–45% Christians, who live mostly in the southern regions
I’d like to see more subsaharan Africa on the list. It’s a noted shift across the region, while you can see Muslim Turkey moderating.
Given the statistics, even gays are homophobes there
Not a lot of gay orgies at least
It’s likely religion doing its thing again
All the Islamic countries are left off the list for some strange reason
These countries have not had the most reliable reporting on topics like these, so data quality/availability is a likely reason for their absence.
Religious fundamentalism is strongly correlated with anti LGBT sentiment (at least with Abrahamic religions), so it is fair to assume that these countries are probably not very good. It is also worth noting that most of them are like they are due to meddling (or outright coups) by western nations. Iran was fairly progressive for its day before the CIA overthrew their democratically elected government.
Turkey would like a word.
Time travel