A/HRC/6/6 page 6 or nationalist promoters to implement their agendas with a clout of democratic legitimacy. As a direct consequence, an increasing number of traditionally democratic parties are now resorting to the language of fear and exclusion, scapegoating and targeting ethnic or religious minorities in general, and immigrants and refugees in particular, in order to maintain or acquire political power. 7. At the ideological level, the Manichean concept of the clash of civilizations and religions is becoming increasingly widespread in the thinking and rhetoric of the political, intellectual and media elites, particularly in an international context dominated by the priority given to the fight against terrorism. This process is manifested in the refusal of diversity, a dogmatic rejection of multiculturalism, a defence of identity based on intangible “values” and in the amalgamation of racial, cultural and religious factors. Discrimination against religious communities and their members is facilitated in an environment where religions and beliefs are degraded or maligned through a deliberate intellectual and/or political discourse which demonizes them. 8. The interpretation and implementation of human rights is significantly affected by such an ideological context. With the stated intention to preserve national security, Governments have adopted a number of policies that have served in effect to curtail or disregard civil and political rights, focusing solely on those rights that are more fitting to their present political objectives. Similarly, cultural, social and economic rights, especially those guaranteeing the rights of minorities, immigrants and foreigners, have been deliberately violated or marginalized on the grounds of the protection of national identity. Following an implicit logic of a clash of civilizations, Governments, political leaders, intellectual personalities and the media have radically set freedom of expression and freedom of religion against each other, wiping out their complementarity and the key limitations and restrictions that accompany the exercise of these rights, carefully formulated in the pertinent international instruments. II. FORMS OF RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION 9. Religious discrimination often takes the form of ideological violence. Such ideological violence is encouraged by elites, politicians and media adopting a certain posture that predisposes the general public to discriminate against a particular religious community. Although in general this posture refers to the legitimate expression of ideas, it creates an ideological environment that favours the existence and legitimization of physical acts of violence. In particular, the legitimizing role played by intellectual violence tends to encourage the trivialization of discrimination and may lead to other forms of discrimination such as the institutionalization of discriminatory practices, physical violence against believers and attacks on their places of worship and culture, and increasingly on their use of religious symbols. 10. Ideological violence is sometimes institutionalized in written or unwritten rules and behaviours that de facto create social discrimination and restrictions to religious freedom. Apart from increasingly openly discriminatory legislation, a number of practices can make the full enjoyment of religious freedom more difficult, such as barriers to the construction of places of worship and use of religious symbols. Institutionalized discrimination is a key obstacle faced by religious minorities in various countries and is reflected in policies such as discriminatory registration procedures with State authorities for religious communities, particular restrictions for the free circulation of religious texts or explicit ban on the practice of minority religions.