In North Korea alone, 300 people are killed each year for their faith. Here are some examples of the religious persecution that takes place:

* In one prison, a warden hung a Christian man upside down and ordered him to deny his beliefs. Eventually the warden stabbed at him and pushed him to the ground, ordering 6,000 prisoners to trample him to death.
* Eight prisoners stayed silent when told to deny the existence of heaven, so an infuriated prison official ordered other inmates to pour molten iron over them.
* Some reports say Christian prisoners are deliberately crippled so they cannot walk; others are left naked and so starved they eat the rats scampering in their prison cells raw.

More on this can be found here.

This is an example of a government trying to force its religious beliefs onto it’s people. Oddly, the major religions in North Korea are Buddhism and Confucianism - two typically nonviolent faiths. This is also an example of how religious faith can be used to justify/cause/allow suffering… in this case, even when one’s religion of choice has passive attitudes and “benign” beliefs.