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Latest Updates: secularism RSS

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  midwinterspring 8:16 am on February 11, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: france (71), headscarf (2), left-wing (11), secularism

  I was particularly heartened by the earlier news of France’s New Anti-Capitalist Party running Ilham Moussaid, a Muslim woman (who happens to wear the hijab), as one of its candidates for the upcoming elections. I’m always happy to see fellow Muslims on the far left.

  But we should have known the defenders of French “enlightenment” couldn’t sit idly by in the face of the imminent threat posed to the Republic by a piece of fabric:

  Today, in a sign of how deep concerns are running, a leading feminist group announced it would file an official complaint against the NPA’s list of candidates in the Vaucluse département to protest against what it called an “anti-secular, anti-feminist and anti-republican” stunt.

  Moussaid’s reaction:

  “It is with great sadness that I watch … my life reduced to my headscarf. It is with great sadness that I hear that my personal beliefs are a danger to others while I advocate friendship, respect, tolerance, solidarity and equality for all human beings.”

   

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  thabet 8:19 am on February 7, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: 'veiling' (31), france (71), laicite (3), left-wing (11), Muslim women (80), politics (765), religion (364), secularism, trotskyism

  Far-left party reveals ‘veiled’ female candidate:

  A candidate for a radical French anti-capitalist party in the forthcoming regional elections wears a headscarf as a token of her Islamic faith, something that has raised eyebrows in this rigidly secular society.

  All the more so because the NPA (New Anti-capitalist Party), led by Trotskyist postman Olivier Besancenot, is a party that generates headlines for its extreme left wing position on issues including militant secularism.

   
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  johnpi 11:19 pm on January 13, 2010 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: liberal muslims (5), liberals (17), muslim liberals (7), saudi arabia (135), secular (5), secularism

  The dirty seven letter words of Saudi Arabia.

  In Saudi, if you would like to be dismissed and have everything you write or say never taken seriously, all you have to do is to declare yourself a liberal or secularist. That’s it. You’re done. You might as well be screaming in a thunder storm.
  ….

  There is no clear definition of liberalism and secularism in Saudi. However in a dichotomy they seem to be the opposite of being a God-fearing decent person.

  For example, Saudis who believe that sciences and math should be the focus of the school day and not Islamic studies get categorized as secular. If they think that the PVPV should be merged with the police then they most definitely have secularist tendencies. Any type of idea related to keeping up with the rest of the world is deemed secularism. Insinuating that the ban on women driving goes against basic human rights, will brand them liberal.

   
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  johnpi 6:49 pm on January 4, 2010 | 4 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: bangladesh (42), secular state (3), secularism, the secular state (2)

  Bangladesh bans religion in politics.

  Bangladesh’s dozens of Islamic political parties must drop Islam from their name and stop using religion when on the campaign trail following a court ruling, the country’s law minister said Monday. The Supreme Court on Sunday upheld an earlier ruling by the High Court from 2005 throwing out the fifth amendment of the constitution, which had allowed religion-based politics to flourish in the country since the late 1970s.

  “All politics based on religion are going to be banned as per the original constitution,” Shafique Ahmed told AFP. The verdict does not affect constitutional amendments that made Islam the Muslim majority nation’s state religion in 1988 and incorporated a Quranic verse in the constitution. The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which is allied with two Islamic parties, said it would appeal the verdict.

  Bangladesh’s original constitution, drafted by the secular Awami League party after the country became independent from Pakistan in 1971, barred the use of religion in politics. “We want to reinstate the original constitution. Secularism was a pillar of the 1972 constitution,” said Ahmed.

   
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  johnpi 12:22 pm on December 27, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Arrogance (3), diversity (10), diversity in religious practice (4), Divine intent, Extremism (166), Islamic civilization (2), koran (7), Mandeans, minorities (11), muslim minority issues (3), Muslim persecution (19), persecution (17), Quran (37), Religious Bigotry (5), religious discrimination (14), religious dissent (2), religious liberty (4), religious minorities (27), religious persecution (19), religious pluralism (2), religious tolerance (5), religious tyranny (4), secular (5), secularism, Terrorism (399)

  Bloodshed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir as a suicide bomber attacks Shiites. Five people dead, 81 wounded, 10 of them seriously.

  Earlier I blogged about the issue of minority victimization in Pakistan which seems to be finding its source and inspiration in strident Sunni Islam. The Spittoon has a blog post about minority victimization in the Middle East. It raises a fair question: What will be consequence to Islamic civilization if large segments of the Muslim population lose the experience of living respectfully with diversity?

  The Spittoon blogger accurately describes the situation now:

  Together with the Jews, Zoroastrians, Mandeans, Bahai, Yazidis, and other, smaller groups have all left the region that gave birth to all the monotheistic faiths. Those that remain have often been reduced to what one Christian commentator has called an underground, “catacomb” faith, recalling the persecuted faith of the Early Church.

  Anecdotally, I live near a large city in America that has a huge refugee population of Mandeans. According to Wikipedia, before the US overthrew the secular Saddam government, there were about 60,000 Mandeans in that country. Today, there are 5,000.

  The Quran speaks to diversity as well:

  …the Quran says: “O humankind, God has created you from male and female and made you into diverse nations and tribes so that you may come to know each other. Verily, the most honored of you in the sight of God is he who is the most righteous.” Elsewhere, the Qur’an reaffirms that diversity is part of the Divine intent and purpose in creation, and so it states: “If thy Lord had willed, he would have made humankind into a single nation, but they will not cease to be diverse…And, for this God created them [humankind].

  In answer to the question I posed, the consequence will be, I think, a devolution – not an evolution – of Islamic civilization as Muslim communities thwart Divine intent and are acculturated to arrogance and disrespect.

   
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  johnpi 9:33 am on December 23, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: fearmongering (6), secular state (3), secularism, Turkey (65)

  Turkish fearmongering against religion: Play the religions off against each other.

  The secular establishment in Turkey has deceived everyone by playing on well-known fears. When non-Muslims demand their rights, the establishment says that if they give some rights to them, these rights might be used and abused by “fundamentalist Islamists.” When Sunni Muslims demanded some rights, they were denied with similar arguments — that the rights they demanded might be used by Alevis and non-Muslims.

   
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  johnpi 7:22 pm on December 20, 2009 | 4 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Muslim persecution of Christians (4), Orthodox (4), orthodox church (4), religious persecution (19), secular (5), secularism, Turkey (65)

  A feature segment on the US national news show ‘60 minutes’ tonight looked at the status of the Eastern Orthodox patriarch – the leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide – who is located at the headquarters for the worldwide church in Istanbul.

  The report left a devastating impression that Muslim Turkey is working to destroy the leadership of the church – or at least undermine the church’s continued existence in that country where it was founded 1700 years ago – by closing the seminary where all future leaders of the church are trained.

  The reporter visited an Orthodox monastery that contains a letter that was written by the Prophet Mohammed himself (pbuh) instructing Muslims to protect the Christians in the monastery and to respect their faith throughout the world. The authenticity of the letter is not denied by Muslim scholars.

  However, the written story on ‘60 Minutes’ website presents the problem with Turkish authorities as arising from the state’s secularism, rather than Islam.

  Bartholomew finds the letter ironic. “I have visited the prime minister, many ministers, submitting our problems…asking to help us,” he tells Simon. But no help has come his way from the Turkish government, which prides itself on being secular and fears any special treatment for Orthodox Christians could lead to inroads by other religions, especially Islam.

  Nothing was mentioned in the televised report about secularism. The different impression between the two is so far apart that they cannot both be true. Which is it: Is the Orthodox church being persecuted by intolerant Islam, or by militant secular policy?

   
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  johnpi 2:01 pm on December 12, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: left (3), left-wing (11), leftism (4), liberal Islam (4), liberal muslims (5), liberals (17), muslim left (4), muslim liberals (7), Pakistan (569), Pakistan Taliban (124), Religious Left (3), secular (5), secularism, taliban (260), Taliban pagans (29)

  Contemplating changes that the Taliban are provoking in Pakistani society:

  Pakistan has important left and secular traditions and you wonder whether the Taliban are reinvigorating them by tying religion to mindless violence and Draconian repression.

   
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  aziz 11:59 am on December 6, 2009 | 6 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: europe (82), laicite (3), minaret ban (6), secularism, switzerland (23)

  the real reason the Swiss banned minarets? fear – not of Islamism, but of religion itself. Asma Uddin points out how the ban has its roots in laïcité, whereas Ian Buruma notes that symbols of faith like minarets remind the secularists of the hole left behind by faith’s absence. These two pieces are enormously insightful and complement each other very well in helping to understand just how secularism is making Switzerland – and Europe as a whole – hostile to any expression of faith at all. As I’ve pointed out, the faithful of all religions – jews, muslims, and even Christians – must make common cause in the face of this threat.

   
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  johnpi 10:50 am on December 4, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: King Abdullah University, Muslim science (3), religion and science (3), science (70), science and religion (5), secularism, war on science (2), Western science (3)

  Al Qaeda on Arabian Peninsula’s mufti tees off on new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. (More on the opening of the university here)

  In early November, [Ibrahim Suleiman al] Rubaish questioned Saudi King Abdullah’s decision to allow men and women to jointly attend the new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. According to a translation of Rubaish’s statement prepared by the SITE Intelligence group, Rubaish blasted the decision as a violation of sharia law and said that King Abdullah was moving his country towards “secularism.”

  “If [King Abdullah] is not able to distinguish between good and evil and what is good and harmful, then how can he be put as the ruler over millions of people?,” Rubaish asked. “I call upon every Muslim to (distance themselves) from this agent apostate government, that has clearly demonstrated that it prefers infidelity to faith, and that all it wants from Islam is the parts that do not affect its secularist method.”

  I suspect the original motivation for creating the university had something to do with feelings of frustration and humiliation about this:

  …despite the efforts of scientists and researchers throughout the region, the Arab world makes up only 1.1% of global scientific publishing and the low level of investment into research has led to relatively low levels of innovation throughout the Arab world.

  I doubt a scientific research institution under an extremist regime would be able to do much to address the problem.

   
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  johnpi 10:03 pm on October 23, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: islamism (44), Islamists (47), secularism, Turkey (65)

  Rising Islamist movements challenge secularism in Turkey.

   
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  aziz 7:36 am on October 13, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Karamanli, religious freedom (19), secularism, Turkey (65)

  The Karamanli people: a religious tolerance case study in Turkey. Josh notes that secularism has created a strange paradox of identity indeed.

   
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  thabet 7:14 am on October 8, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: British Muslims (42), citizenship (11), human rights (381), Islam (241), liberalism (43), politics (765), religion (364), secularism, sharia (47), united kingdom (732)

  A report which explores the philosophical and theological perspectives on what it means to be a Muslim in Britain today has been published by the Centre for Middle East and Islamic Studies at Cambridge:

  The authors argue [...] that a secular British state provides many benefits for British Muslims, not least by allowing Islam to be practised freely in an atmosphere of respect, security and dignity.

  The group agreed that Muslims should assert and teach what they see to be the truth of their faith, but also recognise the existence of different religions and the right of others to do the same. Their study urges Muslims to identify shared values between Islam and other world views, pointing out the Qu’ran’s emphasis on qualities such as good neighbourliness, charity, hospitality and non-aggression.

  The report also redefines a number of terms which the authors believe have been misinterpreted. It notes, for example, that both Muslims and non-Muslims often have “skewed understanding of the term Shari’ah, which conjures up images of floggings and beheadings.”

  In fact, it stresses, Shari’ah is a way of life based on an ethical code that emphasises dignity, equality and justice for all. Islam, it says, teaches the equality of all human beings regardless of gender.

  The report was produced by 26 British Islamademics, and there’s a foreward by the Grand Mufti of Bosnia. It’s 80-odd pages long so I haven’t in great detail yet, only skimmed through it quickly: they seem to be seeking to reconcile topics such as human rights and the sharia; politics, citizenship and God’s sovereignty; and secularism and religion.

  (Via Yahya.)

   
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  thabet 6:58 am on August 6, 2009 | 14 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: history (133), ideas (13), muslims (347), philosophy (20), politics (765), rationalism (2), secularism, theology (16)

  Even while I can sympathise with the author is trying to achieve, I have to say this is a terrible article on ’secularism in Islam’.

  Full of anachronisms, unnecessary attempts to shoehorn one history into another, bizarre use and abuse of terminology, the article misses one crucial fact: the Mu’tazilites of the period the author discusses were just as involved in the political intrigues of their day as their theological opponents.

  (Another point is that terms like ‘freedom’ or ‘liberalism’ are not uncontested in Western traditions as the author claims.)

   
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  thabet 4:40 am on August 2, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: burqa (9), citizenship (11), france (71), freedom of religion (61), Identity (75), liberalism (43), Muslim women (80), niqab (23), politics (765), race (80), religion (364), secularism, veil (40)

  A mere 367 Muslim women may bring down the Fifth Republic.

   
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  johnpi 6:24 pm on July 30, 2009 | 5 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: bangladesh (42), political islam (9), secularism

  Religion, secularism working in tandem in Bangladesh.

  Secular governance not reducing importance citizens place on religion.

  Despite the return to power of Bangladesh’s Awami League – the political party that won in December 2008 on a platform of secularism, reform, and a suppression of radical Islamist groups – religiosity is by no means waning in the world’s seventh most populous country. A Gallup Poll of Bangladesh conducted this year finds practically all Bangladeshis saying that religion is an important part of their daily lives (100%) – relatively unchanged from the three previous Gallup Polls of Bangladesh.
  ….

  It seems as though the general population is further defining the roles of politics and religion in their country by drawing a distinct line between the two. Support for the secular Awami League, according to Time magazine, is as high as it was when they won an overwhelming victory in the pivotal 1970 election that led to the war of independence from Pakistan. At the same time, religiosity remains strong in this country of nearly 90% Muslims: More people claim to have attended a religious service in 2009 than in years past, and confidence in religious organizations has increased over the years.

  The current government defines the country as “secular with a majority Muslim population,” and not officially as a Muslim state.

   
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  thabet 4:52 pm on July 12, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: books (112), religion (364), secularism

  Jonathan Bartley of Ekklesia reviews two books on religion and secularism.

   
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  thabet 2:35 pm on April 25, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: religion (364), secularism, state (101), Turkey (65)

  Turkish secularism allows the Presidency of Religious Affairs “to execute the works concerning the beliefs, worship, and ethics of Islam, enlighten the public about their religion, and administer the sacred worshipping places” (my emphasis).

   
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  thabet 11:30 am on April 23, 2009 | 4 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: education (70), Indian (3), islamophobia (227), muslims (347), secularism

  Rejecting the plea of a Muslim student that he should be permitted to sport beard in his convent school, the Supreme Court on Monday observed secularism cannot be overstretched and that “Talibanisation” of the country cannot be permitted.

  More commentary from Indian Muslims.

   
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  thabet 9:05 am on April 22, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Egypt (94), islamism (44), secularism, Statistics (35)

  The problem with this Khaled Diab article is that there are no numbers to help back up his claims; not even bad use of statistics (which I suppose is better than no statistics).

   
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  razib, murtad fitri 2:07 am on April 14, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: secularism

  During 2007-2008 a Gallup poll asked the folowing question in several countries “Does religion occupy an important place in your life?”
  Percentage who answered “no”

  Sweden 83%
  Azerbaijan 74%
  Albania 62%
  Poland 23%
  Turkey 9%

   
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  thabet 8:59 am on April 1, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: liberalism (43), myths, political philosophy (6), politics (765), religion (364), secularism

  Andrew Browns notes complaints against ’secularism’ from Roman Catholic and Anglican bishops.

  While discussing the criticism from Archbishop Vincent Nichols, Brown asks whether society can be built without myths.

  Not even liberalism can be sustained without myth, as noted by Margaret Canovan. That is because ’secularism’ is really just another era with its own irrationalities, contradictions, myths and dogmas.

   
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  abunoor 4:54 pm on February 9, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: authority (7), church hierarchy, puritanism (2), secularism

  I am interested in getting back to something I wanted to discuss earlier. Critics of the Catholic Church (including my parents) often conflate two issues which I see as separate issues — “conservative” teachings such as no contraception, no abortion, no women priests, etc. and a human hierarchy that enforces these teachings and often is corrupt. They come to identify these two pheonomenon so closely that they cannot separate them and basically come to believe that one leads to the other.

  What I find ideal as a Muslim living as a minority in a non-Muslim society (although it leads to other problems) is that I can advocate for a stark rigid theology or even fiqh but can do so in an atmosphere of free exchange of ideas where no hierarchy can enforce one correct opinion. To me, although the presence of such hierarchies is obviously problematic for those with different opinions because they can be actually persecuted or silenced, it is also tremendously problematic for those who agree with the dominant opinion because they are tainted by being associated with the ideas of a corrupt structure.

  I hope what I’m saying makes sense. It is similar to some of the arguments about why secular states are good for religion, but I’m extending it to cover church hierarchies that do not have state power. By the way, the implications of this to my mind are not as easy as many liberals would claim…I think that there are certain responsibilities to enjoin the good and forbid the wrong and one cannot merely shrink from any type of power structure in order to remain “pure”.

   
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  razib, murtad fitri 9:34 pm on November 18, 2008 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: secularism, Turkey (65)

  Youthful Voice Stirs Challenge to Secular Turks. i don’t see statistics in this report, though i find nothing a priori implausible. my skepticism emerges from the fact that “observers” (read: ignorant people) have been prattling on about a “religious revival” in the USA for the past generation when the data shows that actually the period between 1990 and today has witness the second great secularization in american society since world war ii. a “silent majority” of young people were actually drifting away from religious right traditions even while this movement was organizing and making its power felt.

   
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  aziz 8:01 am on November 10, 2008 | 9 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: france (71), freedom of religion (61), Islam (241), secularism

  Islam has tripled in France – but will likely face the same secularising threat as Christianity:

  But laicite’s influence also has created a kind of identity crisis among younger generations of Muslim immigrants because they are raised in Muslim homes yet are exposed to a secular humanist environment, said Gracie Couloir, a Southern Baptist missionary from Virginia who has served in France for the past 17 years.

   
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  razib, murtad fitri 2:41 am on October 9, 2008 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: civilizations (3), secularism

  i was listening to an episode of the kojo namdi show about muslim-non-muslim intercultural exchange, blah, blah. the creator said something to the effect that she wanted to show that muslims weren’t perfect, though she was respectful of islam. i couldn’t but help think that many westerners who are sympathetic to the idea of islamophobia invert the calculus; they could care less about respecting a religion (idea), but they worry about the impact to individual people. the analogy/relation isn’t perfect obviously. but i think it illustrates the different role of sacrality that the individual vs. religious ideas have in different cultures. on the rank order of degradation i think many secular individuals would say object more to the insult toward an individual, who is real and matters, as opposed to a religion, which is made up. most religious would probably reverse the order of priorities; religion is more important than any given individual.

   
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  razib, murtad fitri 12:44 am on September 30, 2008 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: secularism

  French Muslims Find Haven in Catholic Schools. check this out:

  The biology teacher at St. Mauront has been challenged on Darwin’s theory of evolution, and history class can get heated during discussions of the Crusades or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 2001, after the Sept. 11 attacks, some Muslim students shocked the staff by showing glee, Mr. Chamoux recalled.

   

  the church teaches muslims evolutionary science!

   
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  thabet 1:31 pm on September 6, 2008 | 2 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: ethnic fundamentalism (2), ethnicity (30), history (133), Identity (75), Islam (241), kemalism (4), nationalism (20), politics (765), religion (364), secularism, state (101), Turkey (65)

  Perry Anderson looks closely at Kemalism’s “brittle secularism”, noting the complicated picture prior to the (official) end of the Ottoman sultanate than is typically portrayed in the literature of certain Islamist groups.

  But, as noted earlier, Kemalism was not the sharp break with the ‘past’ it attempted to be or is thought to be:

  Though it broke, sharply and abruptly, with Ottoman culture in one fundamental respect by abolishing its script and so at a stroke cutting off new generations from all written connection with the past, in its distance from the masses Kemalism not only inherited an Ottoman tradition, but accentuated it.

  Plus, Anderson notes:

  Kemalism did not so much separate religion from the state as subordinate it to the state, creating ‘directorates’ that took over the ownership of all mosques, appointment of imams, administration of pious foundations – in effect, turning the faith into a branch of the bureaucracy.

  The article also touches on Kemal, the man:

  Towards the end, photographs of Kemal have something of the glazed look of a worn roué: a general incongruously reduced to a ravaged lounge lizard, terminal blankness nearby. Stricken with cirrhosis, he died in late 1938, at the age of 57.

   
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  thabet 12:05 pm on August 31, 2008 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: ethnicity (30), Identity (75), Israel (350), jewish (2), judaism (30), religion (364), secularism

  Another battle in the Jewish “culture war”.

  (Via Angry Arab.)

   
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  thabet 2:36 pm on August 26, 2008 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Islam (241), law (91), politics (765), religion (364), secularism, sharia (47), state (101)

  Saïd Amir Arjomand offers a critical review of Islam and The Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari`a.