Religious Coercion Research Articles

Kontekstualisasi Sikap Toleransi Dan Keberagamaan: Studi Tafsir Tematik Ayat-Ayat Pemaksaan Beragama

Lately, tolerance in our country has become a serious issue, with increasing incidents of intolerance both among religious communities and within the same religious groups. The Qur'an, in its textual interpretation, indirectly contributes to various recent cases. This research aims to contextualize attitudes of tolerance and religiosity within the Qur'an, focusing on a thematic interpretation study of verses related to religious coercion. In this study, we consider the thoughts of two Qur'anic interpreters. The research employs a qualitative descriptive method with a literature review approach. Data were collected from the chosen interpretations and analyzed using descriptive analysis methods. The research findings are classified into two main parts: understanding and interpretation of verses related to religious coercion, as well as the implications of tolerance and religiosity in Islam based on the analysis of the two selected interpretations.

Ukrainian Cossacks as a bearer of new qualities (characters) of civilizational identity

The article is devoted to Cossacks as an extraordinary phenomenon in European history. Its peculiarity is that it became a separate social class with certain rights and had its own territory, independent of the state administration. The relevance of this new social force was caused primarily by the strengthening of social, economic and religious coercion of broad sections of the population. The question of archification, barbarism and civilization is raised as a social and cultural process through which it passed establishment of Cossack identity realizes the novelty of the study. The article uses the descriptive and comparative methods. Conclusions. It is emphasized that the issue of national self-assertion in the 17th century passed into the hands of the Cossacks. It was the Cossacks who had to take over the baton of the former Ukrainian “classocracy”, which for a long period was in a state of decay and destruction. The Cossacks turned out to be capable of directing the manifestations of the protest movement of different classes in the direction of the long national liberation war against Polish rule, which led to the formation of an independent Ukrainian state – Hetmanship.

The Justice Argument Against Catholic Integralism

Catholic integralism claims that governments must secure the earthly and heavenly common good. God authorizes two powers to do so. The state governs in matters temporal, the Catholic Church in matters spiritual. Since the church has the nobler end of salvation, it may direct the state to help enforce church law. The integralist adopts two seemingly conflicting norms of justice: (a) coercion into the faith is always unjust, but (b) coercion to keep the faith is just. But if religious coercion is wrong at the start of the Christian life, why is it permitted after that? The integralist answer is baptism. Baptism serves as a normative transformer: it transforms religious coercion from unjust to just. My thesis is that baptism fails as a normative transformer. I critique Thomas Aquinas’ approach to this question and then adapt gratitude, associative, and natural duty theories of political obligation to repair his argument. These strategies fail.

Llibre de paraules e dits de savis e filòsofs: A paremiological portrait of the Catalan-Aragonese Jewry under James II (r. 1291‒1327)

AbstractLlibre de paraules e dits de savis e filòsofs, by Barcelona-born Jewish translator and physician Jafudà Bonsenyor, is one of the most representative European thirteenth-century proverbial compilations from the Greco-Eastern tradition. The text, written in Catalan at the request of King James II, coincides with a period of socioeconomic upheavals endured by the Jewish communities of that time. This article seeks to examine Jafudà’s book from a perspective other than as it was originally conceived, i.e., as a manual of human conduct. I argue that embedded in the work is an implicit message beyond the parameters of the text itself. The thematic division and the aphorisms selection in theLlibreconvey a subtext that mirrors economic constraints, the decline of Jewish courtiers, religious coercion, and communal frictions borne by the Jewish communities of Catalonia-Aragon. The confluence of these factors acted to redefine the relationship between the Crown and the Jews throughout the rest of the century.

Orthodoxy, Orthopraxy, and Locke’s Arguments for Toleration

A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) comprises John Locke’s mature thoughts on religious toleration. In it, Locke offers three political arguments against state religious coercion. He argues that it is impossible, impermissible, and inadvisable for the civil magistrate to enforce ‘true religion,’ which Locke defines as the ‘inward and full persuasion of the mind’ (Works, 6:10). Notwithstanding the various internecine conflicts within Christianity, conflicts which motivated Locke’s concern with toleration, all of the many-splendored sects of Christianity nonetheless share the notion that orthodoxy (correct belief) is required for salvation. Since the early days of Christianity, orthodoxy has represented the lowest-common-denominator obligation of adherents to Christianity. Locke’s political arguments in the Letter, at least in their first instance, assume an orthodox definition of “true religion.” This is likewise true of those who have either defended or criticized Locke’s arguments in the secondary literature. In contrast to Locke and his commentators, we will argue that the dominant characterization of “true religion” globally and throughout history does not concern correct religious belief as much as it concerns correct religious practice, or orthopraxy. Even though it has not received as much attention in the literature, Locke does discuss orthopraxy–what he calls ‘outward worship’–at length in the second half of the Letter (Works, 6:29-39). We will demonstrate how versions of all three political arguments for toleration can be redeployed to constrain the power of the magistrate within an orthoprax conception of true religion.

COMMUNICATION IN RELIGION DIFFERENCES ACCORDING TO THE GUIDE OF THE QUR'AN AND HADITH

Research purposes: To know communication in religious differences according to the guidance of the Qur'an and Hadith. Methods: Qualitative. Result: Based on the guidance of the Qur'an and Hadith, it can be concluded that communication with people of different religions includes: first; not carry out religious coercion, second; do not denounce the gods of other religions, third; to me my religion to you your religion, fourth; do good to followers of other religions, fifth; do good and do justice, and sixth; do not oppress followers of other religions

Introduction

Introduction Ilan Peleg (bio) The eight essays presented in this section constitute the second collection in our series “Israel Dialectics.”1 The raison d’etre of this section is a call for scholarly dialogue on issues which by their very nature are controversial, representing diverse perspectives on contentious issues, rooted in a variety of opinions and value systems. The dialectical nature of this section is reflected in the different sets of facts presented by scholars to buttress their arguments, but also, and even more prominently, their argumentations which are based on their own normative beliefs. It is our hope that the call for a scholarly debate and the confrontation of disparate, or even opposing views in this section will result in the formulation of fresh approaches. With this philosophy in mind, the editors of Israel Studies, Natan Aridan and Arieh Saposnik, and I as guest editor for the Israel Dialectics section, have engaged in numerous and lengthy discussions on potential topics that qualify as eminently “dialectical” and pertinent to our readers in the hope that the articles presented here will evolve new paradigms. We agreed that “Religion, State and Society in Contemporary Israel” remains one of the most divisive issues in Israel and would benefit greatly from further treatment by scholars. As Israel’s Minister of Religious Services Matan Kahana maintained in a recent interview, “The biggest rift among Jews in the State of Israel stems from issues of religion and state.”2 It is a rift reflected clearly in this collection of articles. In consultation with members of the Israel Studies Editorial Board, we invited leading scholars in the field to contribute articles to the issue. The tension between Israel’s self-image as a modern secular state and its connection with the Jewish religious tradition of many of its citizens has persisted since independence. The State is also home to various non-Jewish religious groups and encompasses sites held sacred by some of them. As a result, Israel has had to navigate carefully between multiple sensitivities in determining the place of religion in its public sphere, the legal status of its [End Page 3] religious authorities, the rights of its citizens to religion and freedom from religious coercion, the status of different Jewish communities in Israel and abroad, and of non-Jewish communities in Israel. Battles between different political factions and sectors persist. We have challenged our contributors to define the actual state of religion in Israel and its desired role, issues Israel has been struggling with since 1948. Contributors were encouraged to offer comparisons between Israel and other polities, and to address the status of “minority religions” in Israel, particularly Christianity and Islam. We note that such questions, both general and specific, go to the heart of Israel Studies as a field of scholarly analysis committed to understanding of the State, society, and culture of Israel. Notwithstanding the broad range of perspectives under discussion here, contributors concur that Israel is, and is likely to remain, at least in the foreseeable future, a deeply divided society in which religion plays a fundamental role. Former Israeli President Reuven (Rubi) Rivlin attributed this division to the “tribalism” which has set apart the secular, national-religious, Haredi (ultra-orthodox), and Arab elements of the population. Rivlin called for “a new concept of partnership” among the four tribes.3 The articles below shed light on this potential partnership but advocate different means of arriving at it. The diversity of perspectives and analytical frameworks used by the contributors in their approach to the issue of religion, state and society in contemporary Israel is itself an indication of an inherent complexity. Thus, while Uriel Abulof focusses on prominent cultural perceptions of biblical stories (essentially a socio-psychological approach to biblical conceptualization), Avi Sagi offers a philosophical analysis of the very definition of the State of Israel; Raphael Cohen-Almagor’s analysis is rooted in Western liberal political theory, while Michael Karayanni and Nicole Maor and David Ellenson offer legal analyses of Israeli politics as they relate to disparate aspects of religion and the centrality of religion in the character of the State. Notable too is the diversity of substantive topics addressed in the...

Religious Coercion on Public University Campuses: Looking Beyond the Street Preacher

Religious Coercion on Public University Campuses: Looking Beyond the Street Preacher

THE ROLE OF THE YOUNGER GENERATION IN PREVENTING THE SPREAD OF RELIGIOUS RADICALISM

The spread of radicalism never stops in the span of the history of Muslims from the past until now. Although radicalismis often associatedwith Islam, thereis no fact that Islam is a religion that teaches peace, there has never been an element of religious coercion against others and does not condone the practice of using violence in spreading religious understanding. Meanwhile, radicalism is an understanding that seeks to impose religious opinions, desires, and ideals to realize certain goals through the path of violence. The spread of radicalism can be a real threat to all circles, including the younger generation. The younger generation is more likely to be involved in radical groups, in addition the younger generation is often the main target in the spread of radical understanding because so far the younger generation is very easy to influence. But actually the younger generation has a very important role in preventing the spread of radicalism, considering the younger generation is the next generation of the nation that will challenge the future of the nation. Therefore, the role of the younger generation becomes very important in maintaining unity, unity and preventing the spread of radicalism.

PENDIDIKAN MODERASI BERAGAMA DALAM AL-QUR'AN DAN HADITS

Islam as a divine religion in addition to teaching its followers to be obedient and obedient to its teachings but also teaches moderation towards other religions. In addition to moderation in matters of worship, it is also moderate in social life. Religious moderation is an interesting study because it is an integral core of Islamic teachings, Islam does not allow its people to carry out religious coercion. In a verse it is stated "To you is your religion and to me is my religion. This is a basis for religious moderation in Islam. Islam does not uphold violence and coercion in its teachings but on the contrary that Islam upholds hospitality and harmony in socio-religious relations between its followers and followers of other religions.

Ibn ʿUmar’s Interpretation of the Qur’ānic Verse ‘Fight them until Fitnah is No More’ and its Relevance to Contemporary Muslims

The main focus of this article is to bring the Qurʾānic verse (2: 193) under discussion and specifically the interpretation of a popular Islamic term fitnah in it that not only changes the verse’s meaning, but overall the purpose of dīn (religion). There are multiple meanings of fitnah, the term used in verse (2: 193), available in the early exegetical literature but majority exegetes have adopted its meanings as ‘polytheism (shirk) or disbelief (kufr) which resulted in numerous complications and shall duly be examined in this study. Next the interpretation of fitnah as ‘religious persecution’ shall be discussed in detail by a famous companion of the Prophet, ʿAbd Allah b. ʿUmar that he offered in the days of civil unrest (fitan wars). It is this specific interpretation that forms the focus of this research. The heart of the argument lies in the interpretation of fitnah as ‘religious coercion’ rather than polytheism (shirk) or disbelief (kufr) that has many positive aspects. First, Ibn ʿUmar’s interpretation does not lead to any complications or contradictions. Second, by adopting this, the verse (2: 193) does not lose its relevance and remains as relevant to the contemporary times as it was in the yester years. Third, on the part of Muslims this commentary enhances in the virtuality of peace and refutation of religious extremism.

Liberalism, Catholic Integralism, and the Question of Religious Freedom

Liberalism is once again under siege. The most recent challenge comes from a modern variant of integralism that is especially popular among Catholic intellectuals. Contrary to previous critiques of liberalism, Catholic integralism confronts liberalism not merely as a political phenomenon, but as a comprehensive worldview with hidden metaphysical and theological implications. It views the function of political rule as existing so as to order human beings to their final cause. Our goal in this paper is to hold a mirror to these two worldviews using the lens of religious freedom. We think this inquiry is important for several reasons. Liberals argue that there is no room for religious freedom in an integralist regime, for one, because of its belief that the state can properly use coercion, including religious coercion, in order to promote expressly Catholic ends. Integralists on the other hand characterize liberalism as playing a con game in that it attempts to draw everyone “to engage in a dialogue within a supposedly pluralistic open market of religions even as it has already filled the terms of that dialogue with a liberal theory of religion. This article investigates new Catholic integralism and its critique of liberalism and aims to answer whether a liberal idea of religious freedom is possible under an integralist regime. To do so, we first sketch the respective views of liberalism and Catholic integralism on each other, with an emphasis on integralism. For integralism, liberalism is not merely a political phenomenon, but a comprehensive worldview with hidden metaphysical and theological implications. Integralism views the function of political rule as ordering human beings to their final cause. We specifically delve in foundational Catholic principles to guide rulers when governing, prudence and subsidiarity, to establish how their application should influence freedom of religion within an integralist regime. We conclude that religious freedom might be possible under a soft integralist regime and that the answer remains unclear for hard integralist ones, as the ultimate answer lies with the Church.

Tolerance and religious pluralism in Bayle

ABSTRACTFor the philosopher of Rotterdam, religious coercion has two essential sources of illegitimacy: the linking of religious and ecclesiastical belief and the use of politics for religious purposes. Bayle responds to it, with his doctrine of freedom of conscience, on one hand and by means of the essential distinction between voluntary religious affiliation and political obligation, on the other hand. From my perspective, his doctrine of tolerance does not involve an atheist state, nor does it mean the rejection of the presence of religion in the public space or its displacement to the intimate sphere of the conscience. This paper proposes a reading of Baylean tolerance as a political doctrine that allows the articulation between freedom of conscience (individual), minority confessions (private associations), and official religion (established church). Thus, the Baylean theoretical model could be considered a proposal to provide a normative form to the practice of toleration present in the seventeenth -century Netherlands.

Legenda sunt gesta ad sanandas animas: leyes, juicios y actas para la correctio de los Donatistas en Agustín de Hipona

The Donatist crisis forced Augustine to modulate his vision on religious coercion under the influence of changing circumstances. On the one hand, he partook in the appeal for imperial laws to repress Donatus’ partisans. On the other, after the edict of union of 405 and the conference of Carthage of 411, he had to intercede with the civil authorities to moderate the enforcement of the harsh penal clauses prescribed by the laws and he recommended the publication of judicial records (gesta) which contained the confessions of the Donatists as an alternative to the death penalty. Both proposals may have been linked. This paper mainly focuses on Augustine’s epistles 133, 134 and 139 and examines the historical and legislative context where his intercessio before the tribunus et notarius Flavius Marcellinus and the proconsul Africae Apringius took place in 411-412. The article also explores the function of the publication of the judicial protocol as documental evidence of the error and guilt of circumcelliones and Donatists.

It is God’s will: Exploiting religious beliefs as a means of human trafficking

Human traffickers use various methods to maintain and control their victims, including physical, economic, and psychological restraints. Specifically focusing on the psychological aspect of control, this paper seeks to address the role of religion and how it can be exploited as a tool of coercion. Employing case study methodology, this paper will focus on examples of Islam, House of Judah, and Scientology, and how belief systems facilitated victim coercion. The purpose is threefold: (1) to establish religion as a tool of coercion at the interpersonal level, (2) to examine specific trafficking cases in which religion was the method of coercion, and (3) to discuss the challenge of prosecuting cases in which the act was the result of religious coercion.

On Faith and Fanaticism: Converts from Judaism and the Limits of Toleration in Late Imperial Russia

On Faith and FanaticismConverts from Judaism and the Limits of Toleration in Late Imperial Russia Ellie R. Schainker (bio) She was a convert from Judaism in the imperial Russian provinces assailed by her family and friends for communal betrayal. Brought to life in the Ukrainian artist Nikolai Kornilovich Pimonenko’s painting Zhertva fanatizma (Victim of Fanaticism; 1899), this converted Jewess was inspired by an actual female convert in a shtetl (Yiddish: small town) in the Pale of Jewish Settlement in late imperial Russia who converted to marry her Christian lover and was then tormented by her former coreligionists. Although contemporary Jews decried Pimonenko’s art as antisemitic for casting the former Jewess as an innocent victim of Jewish wrath and aggression, they also appropriated the sketch and another like it for circulation on postcards with the accompanying Hebrew words ha-meshumedet (the Apostate) and ha-bogedet (the Traitoress), thus renarrating the events to cast moral blame on the neophyte and legitimize the collective ire of the Jewish community.1 More than a controversial episode in the artistic representation of Jews, Pimonenko’s illustration is the product of a long history of storytelling about conversion as a conflictual boundary crossing. It gives figural rendering to a wide-ranging conversation over the course of the 19th century about Jewish violence in the face of conversion. The popular press and jurists alike mediated this conversation in the late imperial period to mark Jews as both religious and social “fanatics,” whose violent intolerance toward apostate kin rendered them undeserving of imperial toleration. In particular, conservative voices in the late imperial press linked stories of conversion-inspired violence to the medieval ritual murder accusation to generate a new blood libel myth in which Jews ritually sacrificed their converted family members. [End Page 753] Click for larger view View full resolution Postcard of Nikolai Kornilovich Pimonenko’s 1899 painting Victim of Fanaticism, printed by a Jewish publisher active in Berlin and retitled in Hebrew ha-meshumedet (The Apostate). Similarly, the German title reads Baptized Jewess in Native Village. Credit: Collection of Prof. Shalom Sabar, Jerusalem. Violence as a concept long framed the relation of the state and imperial subjects to conversion as a boundary crossing during the long 19th century. Many Jews narrated conversion as Christian violence against vulnerable Jewish children; and conversions for many converts and their clerical and administrative allies were often understood as endangered by the violence of Jewish families and communities who sought to physically repress deviant behavior. Violence in these stories not only consisted in the infliction of physical pain but also inhered in the language of dispute over the violation of confessional and communal boundaries. Claims of physical harm referred either to direct or to structural violence—at times religious coercion and at times perceived assaults on religious truth, thus causing despair and humiliation.2 The stories of aggression told about Jews expanded the scope of violence in the Russian Empire to everyday forms of conflict, suggesting that minority groups like the Jews were usurping the state’s monopoly on the legitimate use of violence. Beginning in the mid-1860s and the era of reform, conservative voices in the Russian press, in line with some jurists, harnessed these stories of violence to create a narrative of gendered violence in which Jews were designated as [End Page 754] inherently fanatical. This discrediting discourse came on the heels of the 1863 Polish insurrection and ensuing Russification campaigns in the northwestern region. In addition, the 1864 judicial reforms provided public, civil channels for cantonist converts from Judaism to challenge their coerced baptisms in the pre-reform army and for prosecutors to indict relapsed converts and their alleged Jewish enablers on charges of leading neophytes astray or of “seduction” (sovrashchenie).3 In this late imperial discourse of Jewish violence, the female convert as victim was used to construct an ethnoconfessional political order that set “fanatical” minorities apart from the rational, tolerant, and civilized imperial order. The female victim symbolized the vulnerability of religious truth to heterodoxy, especially because women were identified as vessels of religion across faith communities. In addition, exclusion and humiliation often breed intimate and domestic violence. Thus gendered violence served...

Kontynuacja przymusu państwowego w sprawach religijnych w Afryce Północnej

The paper aims at showing the continuity of the methods and motivations of the religious persecutions in Roman North Africa between IV and VII century. Different examples are briefly analysed: anti-Christian persecutions of the first centuries, the struggle between the Catholics and the Donatists, the persecution of the Catholics by the Vandals and the religious coercion exercised against Jews and dissidents under Byzantine dominion. The continuity can be found not only in the means employed by the oppressors and their justification, but also in the descrip­tion of the situation produced by the victims.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN AMERICA: MYTHS AND REALITIES

The Whiggish story of ever-evolving liberty issuing from the Revolutionary decades and progressing straightforwardly over the next two centuries is dead. But so too, it seems, on the evidence of these two good books, is the revisionist tale of either “republican virtue” (often trumpeted by progressives) or “evangelical piety” (often trumpeted by Christian conservatives) governing the American mind and its understanding of rights, obligations, and collective identity. Both Steven K. Green and David Sehat see the narrative arc of American history as a continual tension between the religious and secular understandings of the American Constitution. Sehat is more doubtful that the Jeffersonian–Madisonian doctrine of separation of church and state ever commanded broad assent. The “myth” that America was born religiously free, though peddled by liberals, he argues, actually disables secularists who are struggling to create a public realm truly free from religious coercion. Green more readily accepts the proposition that the germ of religious freedom grew from its eighteenth-century origins along a non-continuous but nonetheless clearly secularizing trajectory.

Regime Type, Religion-State Arrangements, and Religious Markets in the Muslim World

This paper analyzes the effects of religious regulation and favoritism on religious markets in the Muslim world. Specifically, the paper examines to what extent the institutional promotion of Islam has generated more robust national religious markets and whether levels of political openness have conditioned such robustness. The paper builds a “comparative political economy” approach to analyze Muslim-majority religious markets by drawing on a more complex understanding of the varieties of ways in which states institutionalize their relationships with the religions of their nations. In doing so, the paper argues that some types of state-sponsored religious monopolies are more efficient at promoting religious dynamism than others. A cross-national analysis of religiosity in the Muslim-majority world suggests that religiously friendly policies in democratic settings can boost national rates of religiosity and that the possibility of religious coercion in authoritarian settings magnifies the effects of the promotion (or de-promotion) of religion.

Freedom of religion and religious coercion The challenge posed by the prohibition of coercion as a condition of religious freedom

Religious freedom opened up a world for religious diversity. Te drafters of the right to freedom of religion were well aware of the atrocities committed in the name of religion and therefore include an important fundamental of religious freedom. Belonging to and participating in the practises of religion must be a voluntary act. Unfortunately, as a result of the susceptibility of people and the nature of religion some new religious groups feel entitled to ignore the condition believing that their belief system supersedes any earthly convention. Addressing this issue pose a challenge to governments. Restricted by the right to religious freedom no political or legal measure can be introduced to regulate or prescribe the internal functioning of religion. The solution is needed on another level. The South African charter for religious rights and freedoms not only provides an ideal platform to engage in a fruitful interaction with other religions but also to guard and assist in the adherence to the fundamentals of religious freedom.