In recent debates on the constitutional status of 'secularism' we can discern three positions. The first tries to overcome the absence of 'secularism' in most liberal-democratic constitutions by developing a more robust theory of constitutional secularism. The second develops theories of 'alternative secularisms'. The third, defended in this article, argues that we should drop secularism as a 'cacophonous' concept from our constitutional and legal language and replace it by liberal-democratic constitutionalism. I develop an analytical taxonomy of twelve different meanings of 'secularism' based on a comparative study of Turkish and Indian Supreme Court cases on secularism, and demonstrate that they are incompatible with each other and with the hard core of liberal-democratic constitutions. Next, I criticize the respective rulings in the Turkish and Indian context. Particularly in 'militant democracies', the appeal to a principle of 'secularism' turns out to be inimical to the liberal and to the democratic 'constitutional essentials'. I end with some normative recommendations on the role of constitutional review and judicial activism.
Buddhism in the modern world offers an example of (1) the porousness of the boundary between the secular and religious; (2) the diversity, fluidity, and constructedness of the very categories of religious and secular, since they appear in different ways among different Buddhist cultures in divergent national contexts; and (3) the way these categories nevertheless have very real-world effects and become drivers of substantial change in belief and practice. Drawing on a few examples of Buddhism in various geographical and political settings, I hope to take a few modest steps toward illuminating some broad contours of the interlacing of secularism and Buddhism. In doing so, I am synthesizing some of my own and a few others' research on modern Buddhism, integrating it with some current research I am doing on meditation, and considering its implications for thinking about secularism. This, I hope, will provide a background against which we can consider more closely some particular features of Buddhism in the Chinese cultural world, about which I will offer some preliminary thoughts.
Imam Sajjad (AS) Sahifeh, one of the most valuable legacies of Islamic Thought. A collection of prayers that, in terms of document content is very authentic, Sahifeh Sajjadieh and Blessings Imam Sajjad (AS), due to the repression of political and historical situation of his time, after Uprising Ashoora, the enormous load of content exclusive to the person. This study is based on analytical methods - descriptive, and enjoying written and unwritten sources in the field, to review the status of the world and world issues addressed in the Sahifeh Sajjadieh. Studies indicate that the have been trying Sahifeh Sajadieh between this world and the hereafter, the balance should be logical and consistent, and the extremes to avoid being bitten. So the debate on secularism Sajadieh Sahifeh, according to the social and political documents have stated that, in this prayer, to help topics needy, praying for rain and drought fixes, and fix poor, the deprived, and enjoined from denying insurance, Foo and ax, helping neighbors, blessings on Muhammad and his Al (p), mutual respect optimal utilization of riches and so on, pointed out. Also pay special attention to it, lest seduced by this world and the hereafter neglected.
This paper explores the political thought during the 1920s of Lala Lajpat Rai (1865–1928), a prominent anti-colonial nationalist. It outlines the historical context under which a secular politics became vital for Rai, and elaborates the intricate internal texture of his complex, often fluid vision of secularism. The second half of the paper explores the theoretical implications of Rai's dynamic position. It illustrates how Lajpat Rai simultaneously articulated both a Hindu communal politics and a vision of secularism. By so doing, this paper challenges the long-drawn strict dichotomy between Hindu politics or Hindu 'communalism' and Indian secularism. Yet, the paper also pushes back against revisionist scholarship which, in challenging assumptions of strict mutual exclusivity between Indian secularism and Hindu communalism, has tended to overlook and undermine meaningful distinctions that still exist between these categories. This paper insists on the need to retain and respect the analytical distinctions between the two categories, even while recognising that they do not always exist in relation to each other as a strict dichotomy. Unearthing a hitherto-hidden Indian secularism articulated by this 'Hindu communal' politician, the paper will briefly explore the ways in which Rai's complex position overlaps with, and is distinct from, Western variants of secularism, India's constitutional secularism, and the Gandhian-Nehruvian vision, the latter of which became hegemonic till the 1970s. The paper ends by, very briefly, comparing Lajpat Rai's position with Hindutva nationalism – a major influence on the contemporary Hindu right – and by reflecting on the relationship between the Hindu right and secularism.
As recent headlines reveal, conflicts and debates around the world increasingly involve secularism. National borders and traditional religions cannot keep people in tidy boxes as political struggles, doctrinal divergences, and demographic trends are sweeping across regions and entire continents. And secularity is increasing in society, with a growing number of people in many regions having no religious affiliation or lacking interest in religion. Simultaneously, there is a resurgence of religious participation in the politics of many countries. How might these diverse phenomena be better understood? The Oxford Handbook of Secularism offers a wide-ranging and in-depth examination of this global conversation, bringing together the views of an international collection of prominent experts in their respective fields.
The paper reverse the famous question of Susan Möller Okin "Is multiculturalism bad for women" and asks the question of the supposed "natural alliance" between secularism and democracy. It takes as an illustration the relation between secularist movement and women's claims in the history of Belgium from the Belgian revolution until now. It presents a first, sketchy description of the alliance, trying to show that three periods can be distinguished : until the end of the schoolwar, the relations between the secularist movement and women's claim are rather weak and the secularists tend to distrust women, they consider as allied of the clerics; during the period of 1960-2000, the alliance is stonger over the claim of "self-disposal of one's body'" ; then, from 2000 until now, there is a strong division between both secularist and feminist movements, and so there are two alliances : radical secularism and mainstream feminist movement are allied against islam while, radical feminist and tolerant secularism are allied against neo-colonialist position. ; Peer reviewed
The place to be attributed to the phenomenon of religion in relation to secularism, has returned to the limelight in the debate on the preamble of the future European Constitution, involving the 'person', with his rights and his dignity. The reference to God is not present in any constitution of democratic countries because it can not and should not legitimize any State. This return of religion in the public sense, has been determined by three factors such as migration influx, globalization and terrorism.
In this apologetic work the author compares the "ideal types" of secular ideology (understood as superstition; Russian: sueverie) with religious ones (as trust [Rus1 sian: doverie] in God), showing the competitive and conflictive nature of their interaction. The article demonstrates the ideological and moral bankruptcy of the secular worldview, the apophatic, negative pathos of its pseudo1freedom from duties and relationships, and, as a result, from the meaning and true value of human life. The purpose of the article is to criticize the "theol1 ogy of political correctness," i.e. attempts to soften adherence to Biblical principles of moral evaluation of the atheistic way of life, as well to criticize the false "spirituality" of the New Age movement that seeks to return the civilized consumer to the pagan deification of human instincts. The separation of Church and State, bought with the lives of thousands of Protestants, is one of the major achievements of modern times. The solution to the problem of the moral degradation of society lies not in the reduction of the space of freedom, as in medieval Catholic Europe, but in the following of the moral precepts of the gospel by the Church, although not in the short1 term political order1even with a religious tinge1and in the continued fulfillment of the Great Commission.
Turkey is the only secular Muslim country which wants to be a part of a non- Muslim union, the EU. Turkish secularism is confusing to outside observers, in particular to the Europeans, and poses a problem in its integration into the EU. Turkish secularism is usually compared to French secularism. Yet there are major differences between them. The only parallel that can be found in the world to Turkish secularism is the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and Chinesestyle secularism where the state controls religion. The present political tensions in Turkey should be analyzed in the light of this phenomenon. The current main political cleavage in Turkey is not between Islamists and secularists, but between advocates of Western-style democratic secularism and advocates of the authoritarian-style secularism. The latter are against the Western-style democratic secularism and therefore against the EU.
__Abstract__ The increasingly fashionable concept and framing of post-secularism aims to construct simplistic dichotomies and clear-cut ruptures between pre-secular, secular and post-secular ages or epochs, in order to paint generalised and homogenised pictures of societies and their inevitable evolution. This conceptual strategy drastically reduces, or even neglects, historical contingency and societal complexity. Against the background of a brief reflection on thepossibilities and limits of a transcultural and transhistorical concept of religion, this article engages in a critical discussion of 'Secularisation and the Conditions of Post-Secularism' from a sociological point of view and critically reflects on some of the 'normative issues of how citizens' of a 'post-secular society should understand themselves'. In this regard, the main assertion is that we should opt to drop both secularism and post-secularism from our constitutional and legal language, and replace it with priority for liberal democracy or, more specifically, with liberal-democratic constitutionalism.
In the last decade, theorists in anthropology and other disciplines have vigorously critiqued commonplace distinctions between secularism and religion. Highlighting how secularism is a form of Western epistemology, such theorists have argued this distinction is deeply problematic because it obscures secularism's historical, political, and cultural particularity. My dissertation argues Iran is well situated to engage in this debate because its political terrain brings into relief how discussions of secularity and religiosity often fall back on an irresolvable dichotomy wherein secularism is defended without qualification or religious authoritarianism is ignored altogether. In an effort to move out of this impasse, my dissertation critiques the presumed neutrality of secularism without defending a thoroughly undemocratic Islamic Republic. Through an examination of three sites within Iranian politics since 1979, I show how alternatives to both secularism and undemocratic forms of Islam are already present in Iran. The first site that I explore is the contemporary Iranian women's movement, specifically the One Million Signatures Campaign, which seeks full gender equality within the laws of the Islamic Republic. I argue that the internal logic of rights and a specific set of socio-political conditions that arose out of the revolution in 1979 made the newly fostered cooperation between Islamic and secular feminists within this campaign possible. Utilizing critiques of rights by poststructuralist and postcolonial feminists, I arrive at a critical endorsement of women's rights in Iran that calls for nurturing more radical political imaginaries by not treating rights jurisprudence as the apex of social justice struggles. My second site focuses on the politics of time and its role in the 2009 post-election uprising as a further example of the porous boundary between secularism and religion in Iran. After surveying the history of Iran's three dominant calendars and the forty-day mourning cycle of Shi'ite Islam in the last century, I argue the Islamic Republic is founded on temporal simultaneity, a non-secular organization of time wherein past, present, and future are enfolded into one dynamic moment. I conclude that during the 2009 uprising, protesters initiated a crisis of legitimacy for the regime by reconfiguring temporal markers that comprise this symbolic foundation of the contemporary Iranian state. My final site is the visual culture in the Islamic Republic as well as Western understandings and depictions of it. I argue such analyses of artistic production in Iran by Western observers rely on a particular understanding of the state, religion, and art as discrete categories wholly separate from one another. This argument is twofold, the first part of which is a historical survey that shows how the relationship between art and the state in Iran over the last sixty years has been co-constitutive. On the basis of this history, I then explore contemporary Iranian street art, both sanctioned and illicit, to show how this convergence of art and the state has continued to unfold in the Islamic Republic. I show how the boundaries between culture and the state have not calcified under the current regime but remain dynamically in flux, albeit different ways than in the previous historical epoch. Lastly, I trace how the politics of secularism and religion both consolidates and frays the public/private divide within these three sites. Given this fact, the question of what to do with secularism and religion in Iran is ultimately a question of what to do about the divide between the private and public spheres. Taking up the issue of the double-bind structuring the public/private divide, I conclude my dissertation by surveying the ethical-politico limitations and possibilities of these alternative political imaginaries in Iran.
Published also as Catholic University of America, Educational research monographs, vol. VI, no. 1. ; Vita. ; Thesis (PH. D.)--Catholic University of America, 1931. ; Bibliography: p. 151-153. ; Mode of access: Internet.
This chapter contrasts the evolution of secular models in two post-Ottoman Muslim- majority countries in Europe – Turkey and Albania. Both countries, and their respective secular models, have historically developed under the heavy influence of European ideals. Their secular arrangements, established especially during their founding moments in the early twentieth century, reflected these new states' engagement with modern European concepts such as nation- and statebuilding, central-state authority, and rational differentiation between state and religion. They also reflected the urge the builders of these new states felt to secure their identities as European states by downplaying and controlling the contested role of Islam in a lukewarm, and predominantly Christian, European geopolitical context. Furthermore, secular arrangements in these countries were affected by their peculiar social-demographic, ideational and historical-institutional settings.What kind of secular models did Turkey and Albania develop under the influence of Europe? How do these models relate to European secular ideals? What are the institutional devices to discipline and manage the role of Islam? And how have Islamic actors operated within these models – adapted to, contested but also benefited from existing institutional frameworks?
The global movement of culture and religion has brought about a serious challenge to traditional constitutional secularism. This challenge comes in the form of a political and institutional struggle against secular constitutionalism, and a two pronged assault on the very legitimacy and viability of the concept. On the one hand, constitutional secularism has been attacked as inherently hostile rather than neutral toward religion; and, on the other hand, constitutional secularism has been criticized as inevitably favouring one religion (or set of religions) over others. The contributors to this book come from a variety of different disciplines including law, anthropology, history, philosophy and political theory. They provide accounts of, and explanations for, present predicaments; critiques of contemporary institutional, political and cultural arrangements, justifications and practices; and suggestions with a view to overcoming or circumventing several of the seemingly intractable or insurmountable current controversies and deadlocks. The book is separated in to five parts. Part I provides theoretical perspectives on the present day conflicts between secularism and religion. Part II focuses on the relationship between religion, secularism and the public sphere. Part III examines the nexus between religion, secularism and women's equality. Part IV concentrates on religious perspectives on constraints on, and accommodations of, religion within the precincts of the liberal state. Finally, Part V zeroes in on conflicts between religion and secularism in specific contexts, namely education and freedom of speech. ; https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/faculty-edited/1022/thumbnail.jpg
In contrast to the West, the term 'Secularism is commonly used in present day India to describe the relationship that exists, or which ought to exist, between the state and religion (Gupta, 1991). Technically, the secular state is a state which guarantees individual and corporate freedom of religion deals with individual as a citizen irrespective of his religion is not constitutionally connected to a particular religion nor does it seek either to promote or interfere with religion. In India the concept has been used not as state's indifference meaning towards religions but as treatment of all religions in an equal fashion and ruling out discrimination of any Indian on the ground of his religion. In its political terminology 'secularism' governing the term 'state,' that is the expression 'Secular state', implies a contradiction to 'theocratic state' or a 'state with an established church', or to imply a polity that has no any 'state religion' or which is not a 'religio-ideological state'. With the independence of India in 1947 the secular group held that the system of the country's governance should be run along purely secular lines, independently of religion, whereas the thinking of the religious group was quite the contrary. They insisted that the political system of the country should be governed in accordance with the dictates of religion. The analysis and debates of the Constituent Assembly reveals a rejection of the Western concept of secularism, that is, absolute separation of state and religion, and acceptance of the Indian concept of 'Sarva Dharma Sambhava' or equal regard for all religions (Rajarajan, 2007). At the time although secularism failed to become one of the fundamental tenets of the Constitution, yet the declaration of India as a secular state came only with the enactment of the 42 nd Amendment to the Constitution (1976) and now the Preamble proclaims India as a secular state. Key words: Secularism, Tradition, Modern Trends, Secular State and Prospect.
