Suchergebnisse

This article engages with the emergent ethnographical study of secular practice by focusing on how local bureaucracies manage the Muslim public presence in the Netherlands, particularly the construction of new mosques and the amplifying of the Muslim call to prayer. We argue that what started as the 'Islam debate', itself provoked by growing populist articulations of the fear of Islam, has gradually developed into a conflict in the practice of local governance about the meaning of secularism. Whereas the public and political debate about mosque issues is often dominated by what we call a 'culturalist' or 'nativist' form of secularism, in practice bureaucrats are often led by a 'constitutional secularism' that protects the constitutional rights of Dutch Muslims. Thus, in its practical application, constitutional secularism is one way of tackling Islamophobia and protecting the rights of religious minorities in general. Moving beyond the genealogical study and the deconstructivist critique of secularism by such authors as Talal Asad and Wendy Brown, we show that the ethnographic study of actual secular practice remains crucially important to avoiding monolithic text-based understandings of the secular as inherently dominating the religious.

Fischer begins with the observation that in the wake of Islamic
revivalism, halal (lawful or permitted) markets are expanding on a
global scale, and that London has emerged as a center for halal production,
trade, and consumption at a time when its meaning and
practices are being transformed and contested. He argues that in
the eyes of many Muslims in Britain, this proliferation of halal calls
attention to a form of impotent state secularism: the more the culture
of Islamic consumption asserts itself, the more the state's incapacity to define what is legitimate in the community's life is felt.
Discussing ethnographic material from fieldwork among Malay
Muslim migrants living in London, Fischer shows how halal evokes
a range of sensibilities, attitudes, assumptions, and behavior that
may support or undermine secularism as a political doctrine and
"the secular" as an epistemic category in everyday life. He shows
how Islamic organizations in Britain claim authority through halal
in the interfaces of expanding markets, secularism, and the rights
and demands of a growing group of Muslim consumers. These claims
emerge in a society where powerful political discourses identify the
veiling of Muslim women as an undesirable Islamic practice in public
life, whereas halal is undergoing a revolution in a discursive
vacuum.

The increasing visibility of Islam in France and the vehemence of debates about it have often contributed to narrow public perceptions of secularism to a simplistic antireligious crusade, a misleading image disseminated by the media and politicians alike. Taking the opposite stand, this book embarks on a comprehensive effort to document the multiple areas in which French secularism plays out - in debates over "cults," places of worship, chaplaincy services in public institutions, the recognition of associations of worship, and more -, outlining and analizing the legal paths favored by the state in the regulation of religious diversity. While Islam has undoubtedly contributed to the reshaping of French secularism in the last decades, the book moves beyond what has come to be known as the "Muslim Question" to look at the multiplicity of challenges contemporary religious beliefs, practices, and organizations now pose to the state. David Koussens examines the main political and legal configurations of French secularism over the last thirty years through a sociological and juridical lens, in order to better document its diversity. Such a portrait emphasizes that French secularism is not a univocal phenomenon but one that appears in many guises.

Abstract
This article offers critical and complementary commentary on the new book Urban Secularism: Negotiating Religious Diversity in Europe by Julia Martínez-Ariño.

Abstract
This article focuses on how Hindu nationalists interpret the term 'secularism' in
Hindi. I will refer to two Hindi translations of 'secularism':
dharmnirpekṣtā and panthnirpekṣtā. The
first one means indifference towards religion and the second indifference
towards communities. My main point is that the Hindu nationalists' strategy of
referring to old, Sanskrit meanings of dharm (which means 'law'
and 'order' aside 'religion' and other concepts) make it possible for them to criticise dharmnirpekṣtā and choose
panthnirpekṣtā instead. Their position is that the state
can only be indifferent to communities and not to dharm, as the
latter would also mean being indifferent to 'law' and 'order'. Such an approach
helps the Hindu nationalists to claim to be in agreement with the idea of
secular Indian state on one hand and promote their religion-linked ideology on
the other.

Secularism is one of the important and contentious public debates in India today. It is seen to be in greater crisis now than ever before, making a case for the continuing presence of this book. The debate also furnishes the making of Indian polity and society, given the inter-related development of culture, society and politics in India. It is thus a debate about religious nationalism and fundamentalism as well. Modern Myths, Locked Minds examines the ideologies of secularism and fundamentalism in the setting of the religious traditions of India--Hinduism, Sikhism, and Islam. Further insightful comparison of the traditions is offered, each seen over a long period of time, revealing markedly distinctive historical experiences

Compilation of eight essays

The article describes various modern secular challenges to religion. As the Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev observed, Soviet atheism sought to replace the religion of Orthodox Christianity with communism. Militant secularism in modern Europe, like Russian communism in the past, claims an ideological monopoly and does not tolerate rivals. The author suggests that secularism and religion need to be put in dialog instead of being set against each other. There is a particularly pressing need for this on issues such as the demographic problem and the status of the family, which have tended to become worse in societies dominated by a secular outlook. The author also discusses relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, the role of religious sects in Russian society, ties with Protestant Churches, as well as the religious and cultural relationship between Russia and Ukraine. K. Cargill

Introduction -- Part1. Law, power, and the Muslim female dressed body -- Chapter1. Islamic law and legal sources -- Chapter2. The veil and Islamic law -- Chapter3. The Veil and Muslim cultures -- Chapter4. Imagining nations, imagining women: the regulation of female clothes in the era of nations -- Chapter5. Regulating clothes, regulating subjectivities -- Chapter6. From multiplicity to a monolithic homogeneity: the veil as symbol of a 'clash of civilizations' -- Part2. The headscarf regulation: reconfiguring religious practices in the secular Europe -- Chapter7. (Un)masking the legal subject -- Chapter8. The secular/Christian/'humane' subject of law -- Chapter9. Reading the European Court of Human Rights legal decisions over the practice of veiling -- Chapter10. Switzerland and state neutrality -- Chapter11. Burkinis, face veils and hijab: laicite in France -- Chapter12. 'Is Multiculturalism bad for women?: the Begum case in the UK -- Chapter13. Reconfiguring religion and religious practices in the secular space through law -- Part 3. Revealing paradoxes: Muslim women in secular contemporary Europe -- Chapter14. On Freedom and Agency: an East/West Perspective -- Chapter15. Habit, Habitus, and habits -- Chapter16. Representing the un-representable: on symbology, secularism and the law -- Chapter17. 'Is secularism bad for women? -- Conclusions.