Suchergebnisse

The emergence of an official policy of secularism in Bangladesh must be viewed as a major ideological landmark in the recent history of the Indian subcontinent. Analyzed in terms of legitimizing symbols, the abrupt change from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the secular People's Republic of Bangladesh is a significant event. It is axiomatic that revolutionary changes in the symbols of statehood need not be, and generally are not, accompanied by corresponding attitudinal changes among the masses of the people. The symbols, after all, are formulated by a small political elite or even by one leader. But it is important to understand both what the leaders are trying to express by the symbols they choose and how these symbols are related to the political process and the general culture.

The question-title of this article contains two implicit assumptions that I find thoroughly embarrassing. The first is that secularization is some inevitable process gradually" reaching out to the far corners of the Western world. The second is that Scotland is, frankly, a backwater; secularization has reached almost everywhere else, and now is about to reach this last bastion of the old order. Very soon the fate of old-style religion will be sealed, and secularization will have achieved its final victory somewhere in the wild mountains of the Scottish Highlands.

RECENT EVENTS IN THE MUSLIM WORLD HAVE FUELED THE ILLUSION THAT ALL SECULARIZING EFFORTS ARE DOOMED TO FAILURE, WHICH IS AT VARIANCE WITH BOTH THE FACTS OF HISTORY AND WITH PRESENT REALITIES. IT IS OBVIOUSLY TRUE THAT MUSLIM SOCIETIES HAVE ENCOUNTERED OBSTACLES IN THEIR SECULARIZING EFFORTS, AND SOMETIMES HAVE EVEN BEEN FORCED TO SHIFT THEIR COURSE. SECULARIZATION HAS ALSO KNOWN ITS DISCONTINUITIES AND CAESURAE, SUCH AS ENDED WITH THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ISLAMIC REGIME IN IRAN, AND THERE WILL PROBABLY BE OTHERS IN THE FUTURE. BUT THE GENERAL FACT REMAINS. THOUGH SPORADIC REVERSALS MAY TAKE PLACE AT THE SURFACE, THE PROCESS OF SECULARIZATION CONTINUES ITS NORMAL COURSE. CONTEMPORARY MODELS, EVEN MANY OF THOSE THAT EXPLICITLY PROCLAIM THEMSELVES ISLAMIC, ARE STRIKING EXAMPLES OF THIS DEEP-SEATED PROCESS.

Extensive secularization is frequently held to be a necessary condition for political modernity. The author argues that the relationship between religion and the modern state is considerably more complex than this general proposition suggests. It is necessary to specify particular ideological models of the modern state, since these differ significantly from one another; and it is necessary to specify particular religions in their contemporary manifestations, since these also differ in important ways. A detailed analysis of this type suggests that there is no general incompatibility between the main religions of the third world and widely shared, nonideological features of political modernity. Specific religions are shown to be incompatible with some specific forms of the modern state, while presenting no significant obstacle to other models of political modernity.