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The Caribbean’s identity has been heavily influenced by religion for centuries and it continues to affect the region today. The Caribbean can be identified based on its culture, traditions, languages and politics. The ethnocentric perspective of the Europeans was that any religions other than Judaism and Christianity were alien religions. This quite intolerant perception is still existent in some parts of the world and the Caribbean today. It can be said that this is still existent at present since there are religious wars and crusades existent within the world (Bousquet,2019). There are not a lot of religious wars in the Caribbean so one can conclude that intolerance is present to a small extent in Caribbean culture. For example, in Guyana all official public ceremonies start with a prayer from a representative of all three faiths (Muslim, Hindu and Christian). This example shows some tolerance towards the various faiths of citizens since it respects that not everyone may be of one faith. In the Caribbean, a great level of tolerance towards religion. This is evident in the fact that, there are numerous of religious festivals celebrated within the Caribbean region. Some examples of this type of cultural amalgamation are the festivals such as Diwali, Holi, Eid-Ul-Fitr, Emancipation Day and Shouter Liberation Day. These festivals are held yearly without any hinderances or religious war. It therefore signifies that religions within the Caribbean are tolerated to a larger extent now than previously in history because the European influence on religion is less on the Caribbean region.

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Previously, in history there were slave resistances against the European rule, which allowed for the Europeans to be less trusting of the slaves. The African culture included the beating of African drums, dancing and telling of folklore which helped with their cultural retention. The Europeans were against this however since they were fearful that these gatherings and festivals would turn into revolutions. Around this period of time, there were several revolutions taking place and the Europeans were trying to protect against it. The colonizers were afraid because they thought the slaves would become riled up and their actions would have led to revolts. These meetings were therefore prohibited since there were high levels of mistrust which existed between them and the African slaves.

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The statement which reads “the Caribbean today is characterized by grave intolerance and mistrust at all levels,” is one which is accurate to a large extent. This accuracy of this  statement can be investigated and understood by revising perspectives of Caribbean history based on society, and identity. Many may choose to credit these impacts to the  European influence on the definition of the Caribbean region since the Spanish first arrived. Religion is one (1) key aspect of intolerance and mistrust which usually tends to result due to a lack of understanding on a specific issue.

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Due to the Caribbean colonisers, at one point in time the only religious bodies which existed were Christian because the Europeans thought that Christianity was superior to all other religions. Prior to the emergence of other religious boards, citizens may have been and felt like they were misrepresented. SDMS and ASJA bodies allowed for religions other than Christians to be represented. The SDMS board allowed for the lobbying of Hindus and encouraged the emergence of other Hindu boards within the society. Before founding these two bodies, people may have been worried about sending their children to schools which were Christian. There worry may have been because they may have been mistrusting of the institutions and feared that their children would have been converted to the Christian faith. It was therefore evident that citizens were mistrusting schools and other institutions, and the emergence of the SDMS and AJSA boards helped to mitigate these worries and issues.

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Through the exploration of history, society and the identity of the Caribbean and its people one can determine that the Caribbean is in fact still influenced by aspects of intolerances and mistrust. The divergence from the previous cultural norms and European culture have helped to characterize the region as it exists today.  After revisiting details of the Caribbean’s history, it was easy to establish the great level of intolerances and significant amount of mistrust which existed amongst the Caribbean people and the colonizers of the Caribbean. The society and the identity of the individuals in the Caribbean demonstrates significantly less amounts of intolerance and mistrust than what would have existed during the period before Independence of the Caribbean islands.

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Previously, religion in the Caribbean region was predominantly Christian because our European colonisers were Christian. They came to the Caribbean with the intention of spreading Christianity. The exploration of the “New World” were influenced by factors which include religion, economics and politics together with development in nautical techniques and the reconquest and renaissance periods (Jackson, 2011). The Spanish first came in search of bullion and the three G’s; god, gold and glory. After the Muslim moors were expelled from Spain and the Spanish reclaimed Granada, the Spanish may have been more motivated to go spread the Christian religion. Apart from being motivated, the Spanish also had more resources (for example human resources and ships) available to them. This was due to the end of the war and the fact that the resources were no longer being utilized for fighting to Muslims to reclaim Granada (Zaimeche 2019). In order to spread Christianity, the Spaniards established the Encomienda system which was intolerant of other religions which may have already existed within the Caribbean. It is therefore evident that intolerance was present to a large extent at that time period since the native people were forced to abide the Spanish rule and their religious beliefs. During slavery and apprenticeship periods, colonisers also referred to the  Muslim and Hindu religions as “paganism.” The use of this word signified the inferiority of other religions when compared to the European religions since it was a derogatory term for polytheism. These other religions were criticised because of the laws and mannerisms associated with them. British member of parliament and planter, Gladstone stated that “they had no religion, no education and in their present state no wants beyond eating, drinking and sleeping.” This demonstrates the perspective of the planter class on the individuals who would have migrated to the Caribbean for “a better life” or because of one of the various labour schemes present several decades ago.

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The Encomienda system is also a very relevant topic which can be used as an example when understanding religion and the issue of mistrust in the Caribbean with respect to history. The purpose of the Encomienda system was to protect, control and Christianize the indigenous people. The system failed to accomplish these tasks and led to the near genocide of the indigenous people. The Spaniards used this system to account for the deaths of the indigenous people to the crown rather than for actually Christianizing and protecting the population. The system is said to have been focused mainly on the well-being of the crown as opposed to the population of the physical and spiritual needs of the people it was supposed to protect (Davis,2017). This can be viewed as mistrust since the Crown was led to believe that the population was being Christianised when in reality, the system was failing.

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The term LGBTQ refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning communities which exist within today’s society but are still discriminated against in the world and especially the Caribbean. Religion within the Caribbean may be one of the leading reasons why LGBTQ communities have been discriminated against.  Religious bodies consider marriage as being a sacred institution which is why homosexual marriages are not easily accepted within society today. People argue that no one should be able to redefine marriages as they wish. Therefore, in society, some individuals use their religion to support their beliefs against homosexuality and what many may consider intolerant views. In nine (9) Caribbean countries, although laws do not criminalize homosexual relationships, but they do criminalize same sex conduct. These countries are St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, Jamaica, Guyana, Grenada, Dominica, Barbados and Antigua and Barbuda.   An example which proves the intolerance of the Caribbean islands is that, in 2005 the island of St. Kitts and Nevis banned a gay cruise ship from docking at its port (Taylor, 2018). This incident took place and was justified by the general manager of the port who stated that the island “does not want homosexuality to be a part of their culture.” On another note, in Jamaica even though buggery is illegal, the laws may not be heavily enforced but there have been many instances of violence against homosexuals. In Jamaica, gays have been beaten, stoned and even shot to death (Taylor,2018).  These examples prove the high levels of intolerance which exist in some Caribbean islands presently. In other islands, like Trinidad and Tobago for example, the buggery law was questioned in 2018. The Trinidad and Tobago High Court deemed the law unconstitutional and claimed that it infringed on the rights of citizens, specifically of the LGBTQ communities and criminalized sexual acts between adults. Although, after the ruling was made and LGBTQ supporters were celebrating some of them were attacked and beaten. Additionally, a Christian non-governmental organization expressed some concern regarding the LGBTQ issue and the buggery law, and stated that the community should not have the same rights as “normal people,”(Singh, 2018). The review of this law signified a move toward a more tolerant Caribbean but also signifies the level of intolerance still existent within the country.