Throughout the persecution of Jews, that has been the accusation and justification: an evil religion of the evil outsider.

Franklin Graham, Billy's son, has led the call to arms with blasts like his description of Islam as "a very evil and wicked religion."

It's a different God and I believe it is a very evil and wicked religion.

The Edificant Library had stood for six hundred years, and in all that time its doors had never been closed to scholars of any but the evil religions.

Chinese officials have labelled several underground Protestant churches as a xie jiao, or "evil religion," thus providing a pretext for harsher punishment of members.

In September 2010, Pastor Jeffress branded Islam as an "evil, evil religion."

In 2002, Franklin Graham set off an international furor when he called Islam "a very evil and wicked religion."

"There has been a pattern of escalating hate speech toward Muslims, with people saying that Islam is an evil religion," Mr. Marayati said.

The document asserts that Falun Gong is an "evil religion," and mandates that another investigation be launched to seek evidence of the conclusion.

Even though those people were generally ignorant of the evil religions they were accused of being in, there might well be truth to it.