Suchergebnisse

Indian newspapers and academic journals assault their readers with stories of large-scale communal violence and of the communalization of India's political institutions. These stories are frequently accompanied by pious editorials which enact the well-known Indian ritual of paying lip-service to the concept of 'secularism'. Secularism is one question on which intellectuals have made common cause with social workers and politicians, joining them in meetings and seminars, even participating in the peace marches which are commonly organized in the aftermath of communal riots. There have even been occasions in which individuals who are known to have been involved, directly or otherwise, in communal battles, have participated in these rites of secularism.

A major source of the problems in recent discussions of the continued relevance to contemporary Indian political life of the secular state and the practices associated with secularism lies in the heavy burden that has been placed upon these terms. Secularism, properly speaking, is an orientation and a set of practices. However, in India, it has become an ideology seen as both contesting with Hindu communalism by those who uphold it, and as contesting against the faith of the Indian peoples by those who lately stand against it. Secularism as an orientation and a set of practices is indispensable to India's future as a liberal democracy. However, it loses its force as a binding principle of Indian unity if it is transformed into an ideology.

Turkey is the only secular Muslim country which wants to be a part of a non- Muslim union, the EU. Turkish secularism is confusing to outside observers, in particular to the Europeans, and poses a problem in its integration into the EU. Turkish secularism is usually compared to French secularism. Yet there are major differences between them. The only parallel that can be found in the world to Turkish secularism is the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and Chinesestyle secularism where the state controls religion. The present political tensions in Turkey should be analyzed in the light of this phenomenon. The current main political cleavage in Turkey is not between Islamists and secularists, but between advocates of Western-style democratic secularism and advocates of the authoritarian-style secularism. The latter are against the Western-style democratic secularism and therefore against the EU.

Abstract
My article offers commentary about Jacques Berlinerblau's new book Secularism: The Basics.

Part of a series of articles discussing Muslims and modernization. Now that Turkey's parliament has voted to lift the ban on women wearing headscarves in universities, secularism has become a women's affair, a women's quarrel. But it is a quarrel that matters greatly beyond Turkey as well because, in the Muslim context of modernity, women have been the makers of democratic public space. Adapted from the source document.

Table of Contents -- Introduction, by Jean L. Cohen -- Part I: Freedom of Religion or Human Rights -- 1. Religious Freedom and the Fate of Secularism, by Samuel Moyn -- 2. Religion: Ally, Threat, or Just Religion?, by Anne Phillips -- 3. Regulating Religion Beyond Borders: The Case of FGM/C, by Yasmine Ergas -- 4. Pluralism vs. Pluralism: Islam and Christianity in the European Court of Human Rights, by Christian Joppke -- Part II: Non-Establishments and Freedom of Religion -- 5. Rethinking Political Secularism and the American Model of Constitutional Dualism, by Jean L. Cohen

Received 11.01.2020. The article discusses the problem of the decline in the spirit of Indian secularism, both in connection with the significant loss of popularity of the INC party and the general crisis of liberal values in the world, examines the reasons for the complication of intercommunal dialogue and the reduction of public space for tolerance. The understanding of such key ideas as secularism, religious tolerance, multiculturalism, pluralism in political culture and society determines not only its prospects on its path to modernization, but also determines the fate of these societies. In addition to the ideological confrontation around the listed concepts within the Indian political system, the study examines the special role of educational institutions at all levels and the media in expanding the space of public dialogue and also outlines the difficulties faced by the country's political institutions. Based on the examples of recent experience in resolving the Kashmir problem and the adoption of the Citizenship Law, an attempt is made to assess the mutual influence of the secular self-awareness of Indians and religious dynamics in a complex structured Indian society on political processes. The paper assesses the impact of the Hindutva ideology on reducing the degree of secularity in modern India and the role of the Sangh Parivar family (Hindu ethno-nationalist organizations) in the course of the country's forced "saffronization" policy.

More than a century after Nietzsche's proclamation of the "death of God," some recent books speak alarmingly of "the revenge of God" and the prospect of a "new cold war"—a conflict pitting religious "fundamentalists" against agnostic secularists on a worldwide scale. Remembering the cultural struggles of nineteenthcentury Europe, one might say that today Kulturkampfhas been globalized. At this juncture it seems timely to reexamine the meaning of secularism and secularization and their relation to religious faith.

First published in 1999.

Religion and spirituality have been scarcely addressed in heritage preservation history, discourse, and practice. More recently, increased interest in the intersections between the study of religion and heritage preservation in both academic studies and institutional initiatives highlight obstacles that the field has yet to overcome theoretically and methodologically. This Element surveys the convergences of religious and heritage traditions. It argues that the critical heritage turn has not adequately considered the legacy of secularism that underpins the history and contemporary practices of heritage preservation. This omission is what has left the field of heritage studies ill-equipped to support the study and management of a heritage of religion broadly construed

Incorporating philosophical, legal, historical, political, and sociological perspectives, this collection identifies the connections between religion and the state that are compatible with the liberal, republican, and democratic principles of constitutional democracy and assesses the success of their implementation in the birthplace of political secularism: the United States and Western Europe.