I've heard "racist" being used in a few cases to describe bigotry towards people of a certain religion. It's a bit annoying because it implies that all people of a religion are the same race, which is hardly the correct case. However I'm also bewildered that there doesn't seem to be an appropriate one-word substitute coined to describe prejudice/discrimination/sense of superiority in terms of religion. What (if any) word exists for it?
Learn English – “Race” is to “racism” as “religion” is to what
analogynounssingle-word-requests
Related Solutions
Racism can have many definitions and depends on the definition of race you're using. Here's several definitions from dictionary.com:
race2 [reys]
a group of persons related by common descent or heredity.
a population so related.
Anthropology.
a. any of the traditional divisions of humankind, the commonest being the Caucasian, Mongoloid, and Negro, characterized by supposedly distinctive and universal physical characteristics: no longer in technical use.
b. an arbitrary classification of modern humans, sometimes, especially formerly, based on any or a combination of various physical characteristics, as skin color, facial form, or eye shape, and now frequently based on such genetic markers as blood groups.
c. a human population partially isolated reproductively from other populations, whose members share a greater degree of physical and genetic similarity with one another than with other humans.a group of tribes or peoples forming an ethnic stock: the Slavic race.
any people united by common history, language, cultural traits, etc.: the Dutch race.
As you can see, one of these can be segregation by skin colour, another can be by ethnic group, so you can use racism.
More generally, racism is a form of prejudice, hate or intolerance, so you could use any of those words. If it's hatred against foreigners in general, you can use xenophobia.
Heteronormativity will suit.
Per Oxford Dictionaries Online (ODO):
Heteronormativity: Denoting or relating to a world view that promotes heterosexuality as the normal or preferred sexual orientation:
the heteronormative codes of twentieth-century mainstream Western cinema
Per Wikipedia:
Heteronormativity is the belief that people fall into distinct and complementary genders (man and woman) with natural roles in life. It assumes that heterosexuality is the only sexual orientation or only norm, and states that sexual and marital relations are most (or only) fitting between people of opposite sexes. Consequently, a "heteronormative" view is one that involves alignment of biological sex, sexuality, gender identity and gender roles. Heteronormativity is often linked to heterosexism and homophobia.
A more specific (and more recently-introduced) related term is cisnormativity.
Per Wiktionary, for example:
Cisnormativity (plural not attested):
The assumption that all human beings are cisgender, i.e. have a gender identity which matches the sex they were assigned at birth.
Best Answer
The term I would use is "religious intolerance." To describe the basis for events like the Inquisition in Spain.