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This article identifies four articulations of the growing `postsecular' condition of social and political thought, and places the idea of sociology in relation to them. I identify and critically engage with those aspects of poststructuralist vitalism, transcendental realism, multiculturalist thinking, and the recent `dialogical' sentiments of Habermas that might undermine sociology's definitive (but broadly conceived) secularism/naturalism. This implies that if we are concerned about advancing the role of `public sociology' then we should be actively engaged in countering anti-secular and anti-naturalistic elements of the postsecular climate.Yet we must avoid anthropomorphizing sociology as a public player, and accept too that the postsecular reconsideration of `faith versus reason' stretches beyond the confines of epistemological and explanatory considerations per se.

Agitation for women's rights in Iran is entwined with broader movements for freedom and reform that critique the Islamic Republic's shari'a law as discriminatory. Despite the foundation of these reform efforts in the social realities of contemporary Iran, anyone who critiques laws governing the rights of women is prone to the charge of insulting the sanctity and foundation of Islam and subject to harsh penalties. Reform efforts will be hamstrung until there is a foundation for open discourse and debate in Iran. Thus, human rights such as the right to freedom of expression and related rights must be seen as the fundamental basis for successful political and legal reform in Iran – whether that reform is based in liberal Islam or secularism.

As service populations have changed, social workers in Norway and the United States have attempted to respond to the needs of diverse cultures, which often include issues of religion and spirituality. Members of the Norwegian Union of Social Educators and Social Workers (FO) and the U.S. National Association of Social Workers (NASW) were sampled to explore attitudes and perceptions of social workers regarding the placement of religion and spirituality in practice. In general, U.S. social workers were more accepting of religion and spirituality than their Norwegian colleagues. Factors such as secularism, functional differences of church and state relations, and different historical trajectories in the social work profession's development in both countries may contribute to differences between the U.S. and Norway.

Examines the regional impact of the rise of political Shiism following the defeat of Saddam Hussein's regime. Jordan, a Sunni monarchy, has been concerned about the shift of power to Shiite Muslims in Iraq &, possibly, in the region generally, since Shiites are opposed to rule by monarchy & to secularism. Saudi Arabia, a Wahhabi monarchy, is also concerned about the rise of Iraqi Shiites, especially because of the presence of severely repressed Shiites in Saudi Arabia. Other countries in the region -- Kuwait, Bahrain, & Syria -- are less affected by the rise of Shiites in Iraq. Like the Iranian Revolution, events in Iraq may lead to a shift from rule by secularlist Sunni Muslims by conservative Shiite Muslims who seek an Islamic state. C. Ong-Dean

This article examines the possibilities of reviving secular liberal politics in India after the defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Hindu fundamentalist group, in the 2004 national election. The research begins with a historical analysis of the ideals of secularism and liberalism in Indian politics. The success of the Hindutva movement was built on the failure of previous regimes to implement secular principles in politics and in society. The underlying premise is that while secular politics was (and is) based on the norms of exclusion, communal politics has succeeded in incorporating the norms of inclusion. The success of Hindutva should be taken seriously and secular liberal ideology has much to learn from the logic and grammar of the rules of inclusion.

It is perhaps no exaggeration to suggest that the crafting and re-crafting of national identity through actions of authorities and/or political mobilization and struggle has been a national preoccupation in modern Iranian history. This is not to imply that Iranians and their political leaders, going through the global process of modernity, have been any more or less creative than others in the world in re-inventing their "national" selves. However, a case can be made that in the past century Iranians have been afforded, or have produced, more opportunities to re-create themselves in a bombastic and dualistic fashion, energetically vacillating between extremes of contentious Islamism and secularism, pre-Islamic and Islamic imagination, and avid anti-imperialism and absorption in global trends.

Mohamed VI, leader of the believers coming to the rescue of secularism ? Examining the similarities between the Moroccan reform of the Moudawana and the French law on headscarves is not without its merits. They are both attempts at warning shots : to show, on one hand, Moroccan Islamists that a new king has taken the reigns and that the Islam of the happy medium must be maintained and broadened, and, on the other, to show in France that the gradual erosion of the dominant way of life will not be tolerated. But these two barriers will only hold if modernist thinkers and debaters are put to the forefront, and only if the social separations cease to grow deeper.

AbstractCan a woman be a Muslim and a feminist? This is the question that most often comes up from the public when we pause to analyze the latest women's readings of the sacred text of Islam. Here I'll try to answer this question, thanks to the help of some Muslim experts in Qur'ānic hermeneutics. With a reading that demonstrates how Muslim women can fight for freedom within the exegeses of the Qur'ān, contrary to what conservative (because they've given it a patriarchal reading) as well as progressive (because they believe it's necessary to depart from the text to approach various nuances of secularism) Muslims believe possible. The "door of interpretation" has definitely been re-opened.

Discusses the condition and prospects for political and religious intellectuals, focusing on the production, distribution, and consumption of political theologies, religion and secular critiques of the theocratic establishment, and movements for reform; 6 articles. Contents: Iran's tortuous path toward "Islamic liberalism", by Ahmad Ashraf, Ali Banuazizi; Sacral defense of secularism: the political theologies of Soroush, Shabestari, and Kadivar, by Mahmoud Sadri; The varieties of religious reforms: public intelligentsia in Iran, by Ahmad Sadri; The revival of the student movement in post-revolutionary Iran, by Mehrdad Mashayekhi; Religious intellectuals, the "woman question," and the struggle for the creation of a democratic public sphere in Iran, by Farideh Farhi; Critics within: Islamic scholars' protests against the Islamic state in Iran, by Charles Kurzman.

CAPITALISM HAS ALWAYS BEEN about the destruction of community. The removal of communities of aboriginals and peasants from their land and craftsmen from their tools and their skills were crucial conditions for the development of early industrial capitalism. The triumph of capitalism required a cultural revolution, for, as E.P. Thompson has written, "there is no such thing as economic growth which is not at the same time, growth and change of a culture."1 New ideologies of possessive individualism, secularism and scientism were part of this far‐reaching cultural revolution, which accompanied and legitimated an economy that for the first time in history was conceived and justified as operating according to its own rational laws, independent of community.

SPECULATION ABOUT THE EMERGENCE OF CONDITIONS FOR A POTENTIAL REALIGNMENT OF THE POLITICAL SYSTEM AWAY FROM THE ESTABLISHED PARTIES HAS LED TO A GROWING INTEREST IN THE CURRENT STATUS AND PROSPECTS OF MINOR POLITICAL PARTIES AND INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES. IN THIS PAPER THE AUTHORS EXPLORE THE SOCIAL AND ATTITUDINAL BASES OF SUPPORT FOR MINOR PARTIES AND INDEPENDENTS IN RECENT FEDERAL ELECTIONS. FOCUSING IN PARTICULAR ON THE AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRATS AND THE GREENS. THE SOCIAL PROFILES OF THESE POLITICAL GROUPS ARE NOT ESPECIALLY DISTINCTIVE, ALTHOUGH HIGHER EDUCATION AND RELIGIOUS SECULARISM EMERGE AS SIGNIFICANT PREDICTORS OF THE VOTE FOR BOTH DEMOCRATS AND GREENS. THE STRONGEST PREDICTORS, HOWEVER, ARE PARTISANSHIP AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS POLITICAL LEADERS AND, NOT UNEXPECTEDLY, PRO-ENVIRONMENTALIST ATTITUDES FOR THE GREENS.