The European Union is a community founded on the concept of Europe. This concept has been nurtured by the historical consciousness of Europeans to overcome national rivalries and to maintain European traditions. The process of consolidating such consciousness has, however, been accompanied by a process of excluding anything that is un-European -- that is, anything, whether political or religious, that deviates from the norm of being "European."

Christianity offers an obvious example. The Roman Catholic Church, in particular, has maintained its orthodoxy by excluding the heretical. One feature of monotheistic Christian civilization is the elimination of heresy.

This phenomenon is actually evident to a greater or lesser degree in all religions, but in historical terms it has not featured as prominently in Buddhism or Confucianism, for instance, as it has in Islam or Christianity.