History Main / IllegalReligion

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'': The elven nation of Tir Tairngire banned the Universal Brotherhood cult within its borders. They had good reason to: the organization in question is devoted to converting human beings into insect spirits. Aztlan revoked the Roman Catholic Church's tax-exempt status in 2027 and then outlawed it in 2041.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'': The elven nation of Tir Tairngire banned the Universal Brotherhood cult within its borders. They had good reason to: the organization in question is devoted to converting human beings into insect spirits.

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', the Empire of Tamriel has banned the worship of Talos, a god who was once a human (the guy who founded the Empire, in fact!) that ascended to the ranks of the other Eight Divines, in its lands, one of the terms of the White-Gold Concordat that the Empire was forced to sign after the Great War by the High Elven Aldmeri Dominion, who refuse to acknowledge Talos' ascension as the Ninth Divine and despise humans as well as pretty much anyone else who isn't an Altmer (or sufficiently Altmer for their liking). In most of the Empire, this isn't such a great deal, but in Skyrim, where Talos was originally born, it is the engine driving the civil war that rages across the land, as people are quite understandably pissed about the Thalmor, the agents of the Dominion, being allowed to go around and arrest people or worse for worshipping Talos, and resent the Empire for allowing this to happen. [[spoiler:The Thalmor are attempting to unmake Talos by denying him his worship, with the ultimate goal of doing the same to humanity itself, even if it means destroying the world]].

* Christianity was banned in the Roman Empire due to political (Christians refused to pay allegiance to the Empire by participating in the imperial cult) and cultural reasons (the vaguely cannibalistic undertones of the Eucharist squicked pagan Romans) among other things, until Emperor Constantine claimed to have been led to victory by the Abrahamic God after seeing Christian symbols in a vision. He legalized it, though he didn't convert himself until he was on his deathbed, and some fifty years later under Flavius Theodosius Augustus the situation was [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_persecution_of_paganism_under_Theodosius_I quite reversed]].

* In the Literature/LeftBehind series, Christianity as well as all other religions except for Carpathianism become illegal to practice during the latter half of the Tribulation when Nicolae Carpathia is "resurrected" and [[AGodAmI proclaims himself to be God]].

* In the Literature/LeftBehind series, Christianity as well as all other religions except for Carpathianism become illegal to practice when Nicolae Carpathia is "resurrected" and [[AGodAmI proclaims himself to be God]].

* Christianity was banned in the Roman Empire due to the vaugely cannibalistic undertones of the Eucharist (among other things), until Emperor Constantine claimed to have been led to victory by the Abrahamic God after seeing Christian symbols in a vision. He legalized it, though he didn't convert himself until he was on his deathbed, and some fifty years later under Flavius Theodosius Augustus the situation was [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_persecution_of_paganism_under_Theodosius_I quite reversed]].

* Christianity was banned in the Roman Empire due to the vaugly cannibalistic undertones of the Eucharist (among other things), until Emperor Constantine claimed to have been led to victory by the Abrahamic God after seeing Christian symbols in a vision. He legalized it, though he didn't convert himself until he was on his deathbed.

* In around the 4th century CE the Sassanid Persian Empire was intolerant of any religion other than Zoroastrianism, enforcing a ban on them and attempting to force its Christian Armenian subjects to convert. The ensuing rebellion, led by Vartan Mamikonian, ended in a PyrrhicVictory for the Persians and eventually led to Persia becoming more lenient due to their needing Armenia's cooperation in dealing with the invading Huns. Modern Armenians credit Vartan's revolt for saving Armenia's religious identity.

* Japanese leader ToyotomiHideyoshi banned Christianity in 1587, ordering all Christian missionaries to leave the nation. He saw the religion as a threat to his dream of unifying Japan, and politically, this was done to reduce the influence of the Christian daimyo of Kyushu. A decade later in 1597, Hideyoshi had twenty-six Christians, known today as the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan, crucified as an example to native Japanese seeking to convert to the religion. The banning of Christianity went even further after the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimabara_Rebellion Shimabara Rebellion]], and (even after Christianity was again made legal in 1871 with the reopening of the country) there are still some "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakure_Kirishitan hidden Christians]]" (''kakure Kirishitan'') who descend from the survivors of the persecution.
** This is in contrast to his predecessor OdaNobunaga, who kept the Christians around (mainly because he wanted their guns) but had all but declared war on certain Buddhist sects (who unlike the Christians, were a political threat to him). This ended up being his undoing.

* Christianity was banned in the Roman Empire for not recognizing the Emperor's divinity, until Emperor Constantine claimed to have been led to victory by the Abrahamic God after seeing Christian symbols in a vision. He legalized it, though he didn't convert himself until he was on his deathbed.

* In the ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSeries'', the Brotherhood of Nod (as much of a religious organization as a terroristic one) is considered illegal in all territories under GDI control or influence. After the Second Tiberium War, with the world's division into Zones, the GDI-controlled Blue Zones enforce their ban on Nod's teachings, while the Yellow Zones not under GDI occupation are effectively a Nod theocracy.

* This is {{Defied| Trope}} by the 1st amendment of the United States Constitution. The "establishment clause" and "free exercise clause" forbid the government from either banning formations and practices of religions (to avoid religious strife that had plagued many European nations for centuries).

* In around the 4th century CE the Sassanid Persian Empire was intolerant of any religion other than Zoroastrianism, enforcing a ban on them and attempting to force its Christian Armenian subjects to convert. The ensuing rebellion, led by Vartan Mamikonian, ended in a PyrrhicVictory for the Persians and eventually led to Persia becoming more lenient due to their needing Armenia's cooperation in dealing with the invading Huns. Modern Armenians credit Vartan's revolt for saving Armenia's religious identity.

* Christianity was banned in the Roman Empire until Emperor Constantine claimed to have been led to victory by the Abrahamic God after seeing Christian symbols in a vision. He legalized it, though he didn't convert himself until he was on his deathbed.

* Japanese leader ToyotomiHideyoshi banned Christianity in 1587, ordering all Christian missionaries to leave the nation. He saw the religion as a threat to his dream of unifying Japan, and politically, this was done to reduce the influence of the Christian daimyo of Kyushu. A decade later in 1597, Hideyoshi had twenty-six Christians, known today as the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan, crucified as an example to native Japanese seeking to convert to the religion.

* In Christendom anything but Christianity was discouraged and was often made illegal. Martin Luther was known for initially catering to Jews but then ordering their expulsion later on. The Spanish Empire notably expelled all non Christians after the ''Reconquista'', the reconquering of all the areas settled by the Muslim invaders.

** There are actually countless variations on the cult of the Emperor, as establishing a single version on the literally billions of planets is impossible. Instead, whether or or not a particular cult is heretical or not is basically up to the local governor / Ecclesiarchy, and the Inquisition intervenes if they think they're getting too lax. This has the unfortunate side effect of allowing genestealer cults to flourish, as unlike Chaos cults who are dead-set on toppling the Emperor and whose acts are rather obvious, the genestealers are allowed to keep worshipping their father figure, which then leads to the Tyranid fleets attacking.

* [[KnightTemplar Anton's]] campaign in ''[[VideoGame/MightAndMagic Might and Magic: Heroes VI]]'' begins with him being declared Duke of the Griffin Duchy and outlawing any religion except the worship of Elrath, the Dragon of Light. This upsets the orc tribes who live in the lands bordering Anton's Duchy, who prefer ancestor worship over organised religion, and Baron Djordje, who maintains temples to Elrath's brother Ylath, Dragon of the Skies, in his lands.

* NaziGermany was not too fond of anything besides Protestant Christianity, and even that was deemed to be in need of editing. In particular, they were notoriously anti-Semitic, and outlawing the religion of Judaism was only the beginning of worse things to come for them.

* Another religion has taken hold in the land and sees the other religion as competition, often leading to the other religion being declared evil and to be wiped out.

* One culture has taken over another, and in order to facilitate assimilation into the prevailing culture and stamp out rebellion, religion is among the many cultural aspects the other culture may outlaw, usually to force the populace into following the other culture's religion (or devoting themselves to the state). Sometimes this works in reverse, with the ban on religion being a way to try to halt the encroachment of another culture on the other's way of life.

* One culture has taken over another, and in order to facilitate assimilation into the prevailing culture and stamp out rebellion, religion is among the many cultural aspects the other culture may outlaw, usually to force the populace into following the other culture's religion (or in more modern times, devoting themselves to the state). Sometimes this works in reverse, with the ban on religion being a way to try to halt the encroachment of another culture on the other's way of life.

* One culture has taken over another, and in order to facilitate assimilation into the prevailing culture and stamp out rebellion, religion is among the many cultural aspects the other culture may outlaw, usually to force the populace into following the other culture's religion. Sometimes this works in reverse, with the ban on religion being a way to try to halt the encroachment of another culture on the other's way of life.