Suchergebnisse

Afghanistan's Central Asian neighbours have generally reacted pragmatically to the Taliban's seizure of power there. For the autocratically ruled, secular states on the periphery of the former Soviet empire, economic cooperation and the stabilisation of humanitarian and political conditions in Afghanistan are at the forefront of their interests in maintaining relations with their southern neighbour. According to offi­cial discourse, Central Asia's entrenched secularism is not challenged by the Taliban's Islamism. On social media in Central Asia, however, the Islamic emirate of the Taliban is portrayed as a political counter-model; one which is more positively received in coun­tries with greater discursive freedom and under governments whose policies more openly confront the Taliban. This reveals a trend towards Islamist-inspired iden­tity formation that will be difficult to stop through censorship and repression.

Our paper offers a new direction for Canadian scholarship on women and border studies by contextualizing women border- crossers within Anzaldúa's conocimiento model. Based on the narratives of six women border-crossers in Canada, we argue that citizenship is a form of regulatory state-power where "belonging" is bureaucratically defined. For these women, belonging to a homeland is embodied in the interplay between Anzaldúa's facultad and shadowbeast—between the agency of spirituality and the vagaries of political subjectivity. They crossed the border into Canada, and as a result, the whole of Canada became a borderzone within which they negotiated nepantla (the experience of being "in-between" culture and identity categories). We demonstrate how applying Anzaldúa's framework to the Canadian context yields new insights into secularism, citizenships, multiculturalism, and belonging.

Caste and caste inequalities are existing as a factual reality in the present day too. In Kerala, irrespective of high development, literacy and secularism, caste is still a crucial matter in the social and cultural life of the people. Related to the caste system in the Hindu religion is hierarchy in status, prevailing inequalities in power and wealth as well as imbalances in the religious sphere. This study explores such a case in which the famous religious ritual of kaliyattam in Northern Kerala is subjected to an ethnographic investigation. What resulted is the understanding of the harsh realities existing in the society in terms of caste and ritual authorities and exploitation. The different communities in the region that are a part of the ritual have to follow strict customs, which are mostly exploitative economically and unjustifiable and inhumane socially.

This research was conducted to know the cultural influence of the Sultanate of Buton in realizing a democratic Baubau City. This research uses normative research that uses library data or legal materials that are primary and secondary legal materials and tertiary legal materials. Obstacles in applying local wisdom of the government of the Sultanate of Buton in realizing a democratic Baubau City government, namely the tendency of materialism, individualism, elitism and secularism. It is recommended that the cultural values of the people contained in the Binci-binciki Kuli Philosophy (pinch each other will feel the same pain), which includes the principles of equality, equality and justice must be understood, internalized, and applied by all communities who support these values to realize the democratic autonomous regional government of Baubau.

This introduction to the special issue on case study research, which showcases cutting edge research by emerging scholars on France, describes the connection between these articles and current developments in political science methodology. SI contributors situate their analyses in thick description of France itself, demonstrating how modernity, rationality, common sense, citizenship, and democracy are inherently abstract concepts that only take on political meaning and significance within a specific national context. Simultaneously, these essays flesh out mid-level theories that are more amenable to cross-national generalization without losing rigor in the process, contributing to broader political science literature on experience versus reason, the European and Christian roots of secularism and how this contributes to contemporary discrimination, welfare state development, and political lawyering and the judicialization of politics.

Ali Abdul Raziq is a controversial Islamic thinker, especially when he put forward the concept of a secular state. Ali Abdul Raziq's secularism which emphasizes the totality of his teachings is a political thought that deserves further study to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments put forward by these Islamic political thinkers. According to Ali Abdul Raziq, the reality of Islamic history does not provide the necessity for a form of political organization called the khilafah and its leader to be called the caliph. The ideal state according to Ali Abdul Raziq is a country based on universal humanism that fights for its people, democracy and social justice, namely a secular state for Muslims and non-Muslims who live in the country.

In this special issue we focus on processes of europeanisation and the work of colonial legacies and their impact on the production of the european body, a body that is always already racialised, classed and gendered. 'european body' can be observed in discourses and practices that constitute the normal/desired/legitimate body and concomitantly impacts notions about the civilised/cultured body, often linked to whiteness, secularism, legitimate class and gender performances. We ask to look back across pasts and into the present in order to explore who currently marks the boundaries of what is considered civilised, cultured, "normal" and comes to define what is considered a european body. What embodies the present, which and whose body epitomises europeaness and how does europeanisation generate (tacit) knowledge about the legitimate body?

In his My Name is Red, Pamuk's clever use of metafiction shows that the novel responds to problems of plurality, inclusivity, and exclusivism concerning the theoretical debates on belonging, identity, and secularism in the nation-state. In the present study, we first show that the novel's statement is expressed via the inherent plurality of the narrative, achieved through constantly shifting perceptions and the use of several unexpected narrators in the novel. Second, we find such a pluralist use of metafiction quite significant, because the novel not only gives voice to the underrepresented, but also because Pamuk's metafiction offers an alternative and more plural, inclusive and democratic understanding of self-reflexivity. Metafiction in Pamuk's sense can make meaningful contributions to theory and its capacity to better understand modern, cosmopolitan and multicultural nations.

This focus issue of CEPS Journal raises two topics usually treated separately, Religious Education and the use of religious symbols in public schools. Both involve the challenge of applying liberal democratic principles of secularism and pluralism in a school setting and refract policies on religion under conditions of globalisation, modernisation and migration. I take this situation as a teachable moment and argue that it illustrates the potential of a particular kind of Religious Education, based on the scientific Study of Religion, for making sense of current debates in Europe, including the debate on religious education itself. However, this requires maintaining a spirit of free, unbiased comparative enquiry that may clash with political attempts to instrumentalise the subject as a means of integrating minority students into a value system. (DIPF/Orig.)

Events since 2011 replaced earlier discussions about authoritarian stability in the Middle East with new ones about the meaning of democracy and the nature of revolution. The experiences and debates of Egyptians in the last six years also raise important questions around citizenship and the nature of political community. Just as there have not always been nation-states, there have not always been feelings of membership, identification, and activity associated with them. Citizenship and political community are frequently discussed in relation to secularism and religion and relative to an argument that the affective claims of Islam are incompatible with the modern presumptively secular state. I argue, however, that the shoring up—or disintegration—of nationalism and citizenship are shaped by the imagination of everyday individuals and state elites.

There has been little academic research on Pakistan's political economy for some decades now. Analysis of transition, structural transformations and their resulting impact on the formation of social classes have been missing. Zaidi1 correctly notes that "Akhtar's is amongst the very few, and most recent contribution that provides a substantive understanding of Pakistan's political economy". Some of the key questions, not answered completely or avoided all together in Akhtar's book, especially those that relate to the subject of religious class/or Islamization and the notion of secularism and secularist elite, have been raised by Akbar S Zaidi in his brilliant review of Akhtar's book. The present review focuses on more substantive theoretical and empirical issues raised by Akhtar's class analysis of Pakistan's political economy. Framed

Separation of church and state is one of the key concepts in contemporary
debates in increasingly secular democracies like the Netherlands. It is not
only used to describe the legal and political arrangements between the state
and religious organizations, but is also part of a larger discursive struggle
over national identity and the meaning of citizenship. This article traces the
history of the concept of separation of church and state in the Netherlands
since the eighteenth century. First, it shows how the concept has always been
a contested one. Second, it argues that the current framing of separation of
church and state as a fundamental value of Dutch society is relatively recent
and is connected to growing secularism and the position of Islam in Dutch
society.

There are laws which ban and restrict the use of Islamic veils for the reasons of securing safety, promoting equality, maintaining secularism, and eschewing indoctrination. However, this thesis aims to argue that these laws are unjustifiable using the framework of John Locke's liberal theory which is founded on the concept of inalienable natural rights and the role of civil government in protecting rights and promoting the public good. This thesis shall analyze the arguments for advancing such laws, expose their flaws and misapprehensions, explain how these laws result to detrimental consequences, and promote discrimination and oppression towards Muslim women. This thesis aims to challenge the current standards of creating just laws and uphold the maxim that laws are intended to enlarge freedom, not restrict it.

This article deals with the phenomenon of "digital anti-clericalism" in the Russian-speaking sphere of the Internet (Runet). In the context of post-secularism the claims of Russian clerical and bureaucratic elites to the ideological monopoly in the political and social life face a strong resistance from the champions of religious pluralism and preservation of a secular state. Presented here is a detailed analysis of the topics and the stylistic features of different types of anti-clerical Internet communication – a variety of political folklore (memes, demotivators, photoshopped pictures). Also traced is the connection between the modern anti-clericalism on Runet and the late Soviet counter-culture. Suggested for the first time is a classification of anticlerical and atheist websites that constitute a vital part of the Russian blogosphere.

AbstractSince its foundation, militant democratic arguments have underpinned an enforced secularism in Turkey. The 2002 election of the AKP, described as a "moderate Islamist party", has challenged Turkey's secular identity. In the more than twelve years since the AKP has been in power, Turkey's political landscape has experienced significant changes, with periods of extensive democratic reforms punctuated by regression in certain areas, notably freedom of expression and the right to protest. State repressive measures coupled with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's reluctance to exit the political stage have been the focus of much commentary and analysis. This article argues, however, that under AKP rule the Kurdish issue – critical to ensuring the normalization of politics and democratization in Turkey – has been brought in from the political cold and assesses the creation and role of the HDP (