Suchergebnisse

Why do secular states pursue substantially different policies toward religion? The United States, France, and Turkey are secular states that lack any official religion and have legal systems free from religious control. The French and Turkish states have banned students' headscarves in public schools, whereas the U.S. has allowed students to wear religious symbols and attire. Using the method of process tracing, the author argues that state policies toward religion are the result of ideological struggles. In France and Turkey the dominant ideology is "assertive secularism," which aims to exclude religion from the public sphere, while in the U.S., it is "passive secularism," which tolerates public visibility of religion. Whether assertive or passive secularism became dominant in a particular case was the result of the particular historical conditions during the secular state-building period, especially the presence or absence of an ancien régime based on a marriage of monarchy and hegemonic religion. (World Politics / SWP)

AbstractThis paper examines how Muslim American advocacy organizations have responded to recent spikes in anti-Muslim discrimination, particularly in the context of the 2016 elections. It asks how Muslim American interest groups have helped frame and communicate the policy interests of U.S. Muslims and, consequently, the collective claims of the group on whose behalf they claim to speak. Relying on political ethnography as the main method of inquiry, I conduct in-depth participant observation, qualitative interviews with Muslim American leaders, and an analysis of primary documents and social media communication produced by Muslim American organizations. This data was collected between June 2016 and July 2017, and transcribed and coded using Nvivo. Through this analysis, I find that being targeted as "other" has driven Muslim advocacy organizations to rely on constituent empowerment strategies, mobilize in demand of Muslim American group rights, defend their constitutional rights, and claim their place as an American minority.

AbstractThe aim of this article is to test two hypotheses on the relationship between religiosity and war-related distress in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The article is based on a representative survey (n = 3,313) in Bosnia and Herzegovina during 2003–2004. The questionnaire included 15 items on war-related distress and 13 items on war experiences. From these items we developed a war-related distress scale, a war experiences scale, and several measures of religiosity. Regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between the war-related distress symptoms on the one hand, and religiosity and war experience on the other hand, controlling for a range of other variables. Religious beliefs and religious stability seem to protect against war-related distress, but religious activity works in the opposite direction to increase war-related distress. In conclusion, we found weak support for the first hypothesis, although the effects of religiosity on war-related distress seem more complex than expected. Our second hypotheses, that religiosity may work as a buffer to dampen the effects of war experiences on war-related distress, found no support.

AbstractThis article explores the complex reality of religious freedom in post-war Iraq. It examines the constitutional parameters of religious freedom in a democratizing Iraq, while also demonstrating how the muddy realities of sectarian intolerance and violence continue to impede the realization of this essential liberty in "the land between two rivers."