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This article argues that international human rights law does not adequately respect people's plural religious and sexual identities and, moreover, is working to ignore the ways in which both governments and individuals are increasingly reconfiguring "sexual persecution" as "religious persecution." The article uses case-studies from both and to demonstrate not only how state persecution of gays, lesbians, and homosexuals is often steeped in claims of religiosity, but also how increasing numbers of people from around the world are challenging traditional religious practices which denigrate gayness and homosexuality. Thus, when such "homo-sectuals" - to use a neologism - are persecuted, they understand this persecution as religious persecution. Given this reality, the article argues that international human rights norms and practices could better respect persons' diverse self-identifications and self-understandings by more seriously deploying existing human rights protections concerning religious persecution.

The analysis represents sociological reflection about the contemporary religion and social conflicts in their most violent form. It is based upon the tragic vicissitudes of the crisis in former Yugoslavia having exploded in a cruel war. The course of events is approached as something having been easily predictable, and deeply embedded in the modern European political and social history, and, therefore, with high symptomatic relevance, to be interpreted not primarily as a kind of tail of the world of the XIXth century but as an extreme case of some current trends of wider dimensions. The war is interpreted as the almost unavoidable consequence of political strategies pursuing the same but diametrically opposed political objectives, best described by Mazzini's political formula "Every nation a state and only one state for every nation" or Gellner's sociological one "One nation, one culture, one state". Therefore, the crucial problem becomes the problem of the role of religion and churches in an area with mixed populations but dominated by opposed nationalism. The theoretical framework for interpretation of nationalist political strategies is taken from Gellner as well as from Offe. The crucial fact is that the nationalist political strategies or the ethnicification of politics have obtained not only mass support on the part of believers and belongers to the respective religious comunities but also their specific legitimacy in religious terms. Some major consequences of such a legitimization of nationalist political strategies are traced and described on three different levels and settings: a) a general level, b) a long range historical one, and c) a transitional one. The crucial conclusions arrived at are that an expected spiritual re-awakening focused upon a restoration of personal moral consciousness and renewed interest in spirituality and spiritual tradition has been practically inundated by a tidal wave of nationalization of the sacred and sacralization of the nation. Therefore, the most extensive religious revival has occured so far alongside to nationalist movements.

Machine generated contents note: Introduction; 1. The emergence of Caribbean spiritual politics; 2. Obeah and the slave trade debates; 3. Creole slave society, obeah, and the law; 4. Obeah and its meanings in the post-emancipation era; 5. Obeah in the courts, 1890-1939; 6. Obeah prosecutions from the inside; 7. Protest, development, and the politics of obeah; 8. The postcolonial politics of Obeah; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index

Prior to British annexation in 1896, Chinram was an independent country ruled by traditional tribal and local chiefs. Annexation saw the land divided between India and Burma and Chin society abruptly transformed, not least by the arrival of Christian missionaries. The conversion of the Chin to Christianity from traditional locally based Chin religion had unintended consequences as the Chin became involved in Burmese independence movements. They began to articulate their own Christian traditions of democracy and assert a burgeoning self-awareness of their own national identity. Moreover, the church has taken a key role in the struggle of Chin liberation movements in Burma and India. Just how Christianity has provided the Chin people with a means of preserving their national identity in the midst of multi-ethnic and multi-religious environments is the main focus of this study. Written by an exiled former Secretary General of the Chin National League for Democracy, this study contains valuable data on the Chin and their role in the history of Burma, and provides a clear analysis of the close relationship between religion, ethnicity and nationalism.

Religion and Politics in a Global Society: Comparative Perspectives from the Portuguese Speaking World, edited by Paul Christopher Manuel, Alynna Lyon, and Clyde Wilcox, explores the legacy of the Portuguese colonial experience, with careful consideration of the lasting impression that this experience has had on the cultural, religious, and political dynamics in the former colonies