Ani Sarkissian steers the scholarly discussion of religion and global politics toward what has been terra nullius authoritarian regimes. She charts out this terrain masterfully by identifying the wide variety of forms that religious repression can take and by supporting some bold empirical claims about when such repression will be most severe and how wide it is likely to extend. What she leaves us with is a map that, unlike most, depicts both broad contours and a wealth of interesting detail The study of religion and politics has typically focused on interactions between church and state in a variety of democratic nations. Ani Sarkissian moves our understanding to a whole new dimension in her wide-ranging, but remarkably nuanced, study of religious repression in autocratic regimes. This book represents a theoretical and empirical tour de force that will not only be of interest to those studying religion, but scholars who are interested in the political dynamics of authoritarian regimes. Anthony Gill, author of The Political Origins of Religious Liberty Ani Sarkissian draws on data from 101 countries to brilliantly tackle a vital question: How do politicians in non-democratic states use religious repression as an instrument of their rule and why? This book makes an important contribution to our understanding of the relationship between religious pluralism, democracy, and freedom of religious practice and expression.
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