Suchergebnisse

Traces of a transnational mindset : thinking secularism for the post-colonial era -- Contesting urban space : places of worship, the secular state, and social disintegration in post-partition Delhi -- Prosecuting the non-secular : the conflict with the RSS in Delhi after partition -- Re-defining secularism in the Cold War : Christian missionaries in Malaya's new villages, 1948-1960 -- (Anti)secularism and social struggle : Christian and Islamic groups during the anti-communist mass murder in Indonesia, 1965-66 -- Religion and secular education in Java, Singapore, and India.

Little has been said in the international relations (IR) literature so far about the connections between secular ideas and identification of risk. However, there are striking parallels. 'Western', secular discourse(s) have framed Islamist terrorism as slippery, uncontainable, mysterious and strange. Similarly, risks are often described as 'diverse, amorphous and qualitative'. Starting from this observation, this article explores connections between ongoing conversations about the politics of risk and insights from the emerging literature on secularism and international politics. Using the British 'Prevent' agenda of 2005−09 as a case study, it asks how it is that political secularism and cultural secularity have contributed to perceptions of danger emanating from the Muslim population. It explores the potential implications of these perceptions for state security policy. The article also explores Foucault's account of pastoral governance as a potentially useful framework for scholars of risk, particularly for describing the ambivalence inherent in much risk-management practice.

This article analyzes materials generated by and related to the Pussy Riot Trial, which was conducted in response to the scandalous "Punk Prayer" performed by the musical group on February 21, 2012 in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow. These materials are used to illustrate the peculiarities of the post-secular situation in Russia, focusing on two particular issues: 1) The "Punk Prayer" and the religious-secular boundary; 2) The "Punk Prayer" and post-secular hybrids. Uzlaner emphasizes that post-secularism does not follow a single pattern and has not led to a unified normative vision. To understand the post-secular situation, we should turn our attention to collisions between different normative models of post-secularism, each supported by its own actors and activists. The Pussy Riot case and its discussion in the public sphere allow us to single out two such models: the "proauthority" (supported by state and Church leadership) and the "oppositional" (supported by the political opposition and opposition within the Church).

This article analyzes materials generated by and related to the Pussy Riot Trial, which was conducted in response to the scandalous "Punk Prayer" performed by the musical group on February 21, 2012 in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow. These materials are used to illustrate the peculiarities of the post-secular situation in Russia, focusing on two particular issues: 1) The "Punk Prayer" and the religious-secular boundary; 2) The "Punk Prayer" and post-secular hybrids. Uzlaner emphasizes that post-secularism does not follow a single pattern and has not led to a unified normative vision. To understand the post-secular situation, we should turn our attention to collisions between different normative models of post-secularism, each supported by its own actors and activists. The Pussy Riot case and its discussion in the public sphere allow us to single out two such models: the "pro- authority" (supported by state and Church leadership) and the "oppositional" (supported by the political opposition and opposition within the Church).

Toward a democratic theory for Muslim societies : the historical background -- Duelling scriptures : the political theology of John Locke and the democratization of Muslim societies -- A concise anatomy of secularism : examining its linkages to liberal democracy -- Secularism and its discontents in Muslim societies : indigenizing the separation between religion and state

"A minaret of light?: transducing the azan" -- A history of public worship: from procession prohibition to amplified azan -- Conflicting secularisms: the constitutional protection of the azan and nativism -- Regulating nostalgias: azan negotiations in a Dutch town -- Epilogue. the right to tolerance

The author presents an in-depth examination of Turkey's development. This essay briefly covers the history of secularism in Turkey, the secular revolution of the early 1920s and today's multi-party system. The Turkish model has both strengths and weaknesses: while the system succeeds in setting limits on authoritarian regimes, it has failed to implement a full liberal democracy.

The need to re-examine established ways of thinking about secularism and its relationship to feminism has arisen in the context of the confluence of a number of developments including: the increasing dominance of the 'clash of civilizations' thesis; the expansion of postmodern critiques of Enlightenment rationality to encompass questions of religion; and sustained critiques of the 'secularization thesis'. Conflicts between the claims of women's equality and the claims of religion are well-documented vis-à-vis all major religions and across all regions. The ongoing moral panic about the presence of Islam in Europe, marked by a preoccupation with policing Muslim women's dress, reminds us of the centrality of women and gender power relations in the interrelation of religion, culture and the state. Added to postmodern and other critiques of the secular-religious binary, most sociological research now contradicts the equation of modernization with secularization. This article focuses on the challenges that these developments pose to politically oriented feminist thinking and practice. It argues that non-oppressive feminist responses require a new critical engagement with secularism as a normative principle in democratic, multicultural societies. To inform this process, the author maps and links discussions across different fields of feminist scholarship, in the sociology of religion and in political theory. She organizes the main philosophical traditions and fault lines that form the intellectual terrain at the intersection of feminism, religion and politics in two broad groups: feminist critiques of the Enlightenment critique of religion; and feminist scholarship at the critical edges of the Enlightenment tradition. The author argues that notwithstanding the fragmented nature of feminist debates in this area, common ground is emerging across different politically oriented approaches: all emphasize 'democracy' and the values that underpin it as the larger discursive frame in which the principle of secularism can be redefined with emancipatory intent in a neo-secular age.

Faithful to Secularism tests institutional theory in Ireland, Senegal, and the Philippines, using a blend of archival, interview, and public opinion data. These case studies illustrate how even countries with an active religious majority can become and remain faithful to secularism

A description of a seminar on secularism in the Egyptian legal tradition, convened in Cairo on 11 July 1986 under the auspices of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate. Focus was on the essential problem of modern Egyptian politics, namely, whether Egyptian legislation should be derived from the Islamic law as administered by the state (Shari'a), or from secular legal traditions; though support was expressed for both approaches by seminar attendees, the predominance of the Islamic point of view, even among the Egyptian intellectuals, was evident. The former approach departs from the assumption that secularism in Western Europe emerged as the political response to abuses by the Catholic Church; it is inappropriate to the true Islamic state, which does not have a history of religious abuses. The moderate Islamic state should be religious, but not theocratic, allow for freedom of thought & expression, & pursue both material & spiritual goals. Though a concern for the material & spiritual was also expressed by the secularists, they emphasized that the state should be based on the separation of religion & law. M. Polinsky

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the rise of evangelical carnival parades in Rio de Janeiro in relation to spectacular carnival parades that feature Afro‐Brazilian religious elements. The article exposes divergent intersections of religion and cultural heritage in Brazilian carnival. The first intersection aims to affirm the intrinsic connection between samba enredo carnival music and Afro‐Brazilian religion by means of cultural heritage narratives, and the second type employs similar narratives to undo this connection, attempting to make samba enredo accessible to evangelical religious performance. The article demonstrates the important role secularism plays in upholding distinctions between "culture" and "religion," and shows how evangelical carnival groups engage with such historical formations by means of estratégia (strategy)—evangelical performances in cultural styles that are commonly perceived as "worldly." This estratégia depends on and proposes a particular set of semiotic ideologies that allows for the separation of cultural form and spiritual content. Efforts to open up "national" cultural styles to different religious groups in light of multicultural politics are laudable, but advocates of such politics should keep in mind that cultural heritage regimes concerning samba push in the opposite direction and support a different set of semiotic ideologies. [religion, carnival, secularism, cultural heritage, Brazil]

This essay draws on an original study of the history, theories, and organizational life of Iran's most influential leftist organization in the 1970s, the People's Fedayee Guerrillas, to examine the symptomatic misconception of secularism as well as the secularization of everyday life and politics by a specific generation of Iran's Left. The essay argues that because of its ideological adherence to Marxism, the militant Left of this era simply assumed its role as a secular political force, while riveted by cultural elements that in fact undermined secularism. Moreover, it shows that a stark political dualism between the people and the shah's regime and its capitalist supporters caused the militant Left to advance a certain political binarism that later paved the way for the 1979 Islamic revolution, a phenomenon that indicates how the Left lost sight of the perils of political Islam or discounted its future impact on society. These arguments are complicated by the demographics and cultural inclinations of the members and supporters of the Fedayeen that indicate the extent of permeation of traditionalism and semireligious beliefs in the militant Left. These observations lead the author to inquire whether the Iranian Left has ever been consciously secular.