Secular Governance Research Articles

Rabbenu Tam and Count Henry the Liberal: New Sources

ABSTRACT Recent scholarship has demonstrated the political and intellectual connections between Rabbi Jacob ben Meir (‘Rabbenu Tam’) and Henry the Liberal, Count of Champagne, and his court. Further evidence found in Hebrew manuscript sources serves to fine-tune earlier conclusions and provide new insights regarding the unique nature of the relationship. Rabbenu Tam's rulings on matters of secular governance suggest a positivistic stance toward Henry's rule vis-a-vis baronial authority in the 1150s and 1160s, at a time when Champagne was rapidly developing politically and economically.

God’s wealth, legal frames, and the question of material and immaterial heritage: the case of Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Kerala, India

ABSTRACT Analyzing the battle over Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple’s enormous treasure, the paper documents the litigious journey of the concept of sacred possession and heritage. It shows how the evolving and complex logic of secular governance in India provides the legal categories that animate this contestation over the deity’s wealth. While the enormous treasure trove housed in the six chambers of the temple’s basement ‘belongs’ to the idol (murthi) Lord Sree Padmanabhaswamy, the royal family of Travancore has held the right for over the last two hundred and seventy years to control the wealth as the Lord’s servants (dasa). Though the dispute over what is arguably the world’s largest temple gold and valuables collection began in 2007, it gained widespread media attention in 2009 when a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed. Since then, the royal family, temple management, and other stakeholders have been embroiled in the struggle for possession and control of the temple’s wealth. The paper explores how legal frames of Anglo-Hindu law in their postcolonial avatars, material patrimony (gold and land), and notions of immaterial heritage (shebaitship) animated and framed this contestation. To this end, the paper maps the legal trajectory of the dispute and the public debates over the ownership and control of the astounding wealth of Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple. Further, it decodes the legal reasoning behind the courts’ arguments and delves into ontological questions surrounding religious freedom and secularity. The discussion illustrates how notions of immaterial heritage anchored in ideas of kingship as well as kinship emerged as clinching evidence in the management and access to this sacred wealth. Finally, the analyses offer insights into the governance of sacred materiality through religio-legal categories in a postcolonial nation-state.

SECULARISM AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: EXPLORING THE DYNAMICS OF COEXISTENCE

This research paper explores the intricate interplay between secularism and religious freedom, analysing their impact on societal coexistence. Beginning with a historical overview, the paper traces the evolution of secularism and the development of concepts related to religious freedom, providing a foundational understanding for the subsequent discussions. Various theoretical frameworks, including laïcité, multiculturalism, and secular humanism, are examined to gain insights into how different approaches to secular governance influence religious rights and freedoms. Case studies from countries such as France, the United States, and India are analysed to illustrate practical implications and challenges in achieving coexistence between secularism and religious freedom. The paper highlights the importance of understanding these dynamics for fostering mutual respect, tolerance, and inclusivity within pluralistic societies. The conclusion emphasizes the significance of this study in addressing societal dynamics, governance structures, and individual rights. It underscores the need for nuanced policy interventions and societal dialogues to navigate the complexities of secularism and religious freedom in contemporary contexts.

Religio-political and economic backdrops of constitutionalism in Iran in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

The article aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the dynamics that influenced the emergence of constitutionalism and the constitutional revolution in Iran in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It examines the complex interplay between religious, political and economic factors, elucidating their roles in shaping Iran's constitutional landscape. Through an examination of historical sources and scholarly analysis, the article reveals the significant influence wielded by religious institutions, particularly religious leaders, in either supporting or challenging constitutional reforms. This reflects the complex relationship between traditional religious authority and the emerging demands for secular governance. This article, therefore, explores complicated power struggles among political elites, consisting of a diverse groups of aristocrats, bureaucrats and intellectuals. These factions engaged in intricate maneuvers that often determined the course of constitutionalism in Iran. In addition, the economic backdrop of the late Qajar period, characterized by foreign intervention, economic disparity and social unrest, provided fertile ground for political reform and greater representation. By highlighting the multifaceted interactions between these forces, the article offers valuable insights into the evolution of constitutionalism in Iran. It reveals that understanding these historical dynamics is crucial for comprehending Iran’s contemporary political landscape and the ongoing quest for democratic governance amidst complex religio-political and economic realities.

Challenges of Multiculturalism: Integration of Religion in State Policy

This abstract explores the intricate challenges posed by the integration of religion in state policy within multicultural societies. Multiculturalism, as a philosophy, advocates for the coexistence of diverse cultural and religious groups within a single nation, emphasizing tolerance and inclusivity. However, the incorporation of religion into the framework of state governance often presents complex and contentious issues. This paper examines the tensions that arise when religious beliefs intersect with the principles of secular governance, highlighting the dilemmas faced by governments in striking a balance between respecting religious freedom and upholding the separation of religions and state. It delves into case studies from various countries, shedding light on the diverse approaches taken to address these challenges and the potential implications for social cohesion, individual rights, and democratic governance. Additionally, the abstract explores the role of dialogue, education, and policy-making in mitigating these challenges and fostering a harmonious multicultural society that respects both religious diversity and the fundamental values of the state. Ultimately, this abstract aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the multifaceted issues surrounding the integration of religion in state policy and invites further research and discussion on this critical aspect of multiculturalism.

State of injury: liberal multiculturalism and the Muslim subject after prison

ABSTRACT The liberal political project has come under scrutiny for its unfulfilled promises of freedom and equality for those at the margins of society. This contribution approaches the critical analysis of state-citizen relations through inquiring into how liberal secular governance enables, limits, and reshapes moral and ethical potentialities. It draws on a study of Muslim men under probation supervision in East London and their relationships with their empathetic probation officers to show how the state can direct Muslim-citizen subjects in virtuous and restorative ways but also in ways that mark ‘injury’, directing subjectivities towards cooperation with exclusionary state practices. Taking an intersectional approach and through attention to pain, this contribution argues that the state is intimately invested in subject formation, but its effects are uneven and polarised according to its own sovereignty and governing logics. The uneven subjectivities reflect the ‘precarity’ of governing Muslims at the margins directed towards inclusion and exclusion, assisting and controlling, care and punishment.

Finding a ‘Shi’a voice’ in Europe: minority representation and the unsettling of secular humanitarianism in the discourse of ‘Shi’a rights’

ABSTRACT In contemporary Europe, where the hegemony of modern secular governance remains largely uncontested, how do minority religious communities – especially Muslims – negotiate the tension between religious duty and forms of secularised civic belonging? This contribution takes Twelver Shi’a Muslim activism in Europe as a starting place to interrogate the encounter between Islamic and secular values. In particular, I examine the emergence of what I call the discourse of ‘Shi’a rights’, through which Shi’a Muslims are seeking to gain minority recognition within the European context. Combining elements of Shi’a Islamic ethics with the language of secular humanitarianism, the discourse of ‘Shi’a rights’ is emancipatory and outward-facing while simultaneously being exclusionary and particularistic in the way it promotes specific understandings of what it means to be ‘Shi’a’. Crucially, I argue that this ambivalent nature of ‘Shi’a rights’ is a product of the encounter with secular liberal governance, especially the secular ideal of religious equality. Rather than representing a natural division between religion and society, contemporary secularism cultivates particular ethical attachments that ultimately serve to problematise the status of religious minorities. A focus on ‘Shi’a rights’ in Europe thus serves to illuminate the fractures and fissures that contemporary secular discourse seeks to hide.

Post-Islamism and Intellectual Production: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Evolution of Contemporary Islamic Thought

The advent of the 1990s marked, among other things, the restructuring of the Muslim world in its relation to Islam. This new context has proved to be extremely favorable to the emergence of scholars who define themselves as reformists or modernists. They have dedicated themselves to reform in Islam based on the values of peace, human rights, and secular governance. One can find an example of this approach in the works of renowned intellectuals such as Farid Esack, Mohamed Talbi, or Mohamed Arkoun, to name a few. However, the question of Islamic reform has been debated during the 19th and 20th centuries. This article aims to comprehend the historical evolution of contemporary reformist thinkers in the scientific field. The literature surrounding these intellectuals is based primarily on content analysis. These approaches share a type of reading that focuses on the interaction and codetermination of religious interpretations rather than on the relationships and social dynamics that constitute them. Despite these contributions, it seems vital to question this contemporary thinking differently: what influence does the context of post-Islamism have on the emergence of this intellectual trend? What connections does it have with the social sciences and humanities? How did it evolve historically? In this context, the researchers will analyze co-citations in representative samples to illustrate the theoretical framework in which these intellectuals are located, and its evolution. Using selected cases, this process will help us to both underline the empowerment of contemporary Islamic thought and the formation of a real corpus of works seeking to reform Islam.

Mind the Gap

Mind the Gap

The racialization of danger: patterns and ambiguities in the relation between Islam, security and secularism in the Netherlands

ABSTRACT The question of European foreign fighters in Syria has transformed security and counter-radicalization into important pillars of the liberal secular governance of Muslims in Europe. By exploring how Dutch integration and counter-radicalization policies connect the idea of danger to Muslims and Islam, de Koning analyses how admission to the Dutch nation-state is regulated according to what kind of deficiencies outsiders are thought to have, locating them in ideas about ‘race’, culture and religion. By focusing on the idea of a racialization of danger, de Koning argues, first, that, already prior to 9/11, a securitization logic existed in Dutch policies in which a form of Islam that was perceived to be ‘unacceptable’ was regarded as a potential danger to social cohesion and the rule of law. And, second, in analysing the process of racialization, that we should take into account its ambiguities in order to understand how the racialization of Muslims works.

Secular Governance and Islamic Law

In this paper I examine the uses of the concept of minority by contemporary Muslim public intellectuals engaged simultaneously in discussions about the status of Muslims in the West and the place of non-Muslims in the Islamic world. I show how the concept of minority – rendered in Arabic through the neologism aqalliyya – is both problematic and indispensable to the discussions taking place in the transnational spaces of Islamic normative debate. Drawing on Saba Mahmood’s work, I argue that the minority question is both a strategy of modern secular governance and a tool used by a set of actors pursuing different projects. I suggest that the Islamic traditions that are often seen as foundational to the inequalities that shape the life of non-Muslims in the Middle East are in fact more ambiguous in their effects than they may appear at first sight. Although Islamic legal discourse has been predicated on a hierarchy that places non-Muslims in a subaltern status, it also embodies universalist norms that serve to counter some of these inequalities – even if the goals it articulates and the language it deploys are not always immediately intelligible within a modern context.

Regulating the family through religion

ABSTRACTUnder Turkey's neoconservative government, the Directorate of Religious Affairs deploys state‐employed religious functionaries to provide Sunni Muslim citizens with advice and guidance on family life. By inculcating government‐sanctioned sensibilities and dispositions related to kinship, these Islamic authorities have become instrumental to extending state power into the domestic lives of the religious majority. This particular entwinement of religion with state power is no aberration. Indeed, the Turkish case reveals a contradiction that lies at the heart of secular governance: the continuing involvement of religion in the politics of the family despite the assumed separation of religion and politics. Secular states may appropriate religious discourses and authority in regulating intimacy and the family while aligning these with biopolitical rationalities, as well as with secular laws and expertise. [secularism, kinship, family, intimacy, governmentality, the state, expertise, Islam, Turkey]

On Secular Governance: Lutheran Perspectives on Contemporary Legal Issues Edited by Ronald W Duty and Marie A Failinger Wm B Eerdmans Publishing Co, Grand Rapids, MI, and Cambridge, 2016, xvi + 366 pp (paperback £29.99) ISBN: 978-0-8028-7228-9

On Secular Governance: Lutheran Perspectives on Contemporary Legal Issues Edited by Ronald W Duty and Marie A Failinger Wm B Eerdmans Publishing Co, Grand Rapids, MI, and Cambridge, 2016, xvi + 366 pp (paperback £29.99) ISBN: 978-0-8028-7228-9

About Bishop’s photographs. The case of Vilnius Bishop Karol Hryniewicki

The article analyses identified photographs (as well as other images made using other techniques) of Vilnius Bishop Karol Hryniewicki (Hryniewiecki, resided in Vilnius in 1883–1885, in January of 1885 was exiled to Yaroslavl), attempts are made to find out their meanings in different socio-cultural contexts of Lithuania by the end of the 19th c. While exploring the Bishop’s photographs, the context of the Roman Catholic Church in the 19th century’s Russian Empire was evaluated. The diocese of Vilnius was an object of special policy of the secular authorities in the so-called Northwestern Krai, as it was not homogenous in the national as well as confessional aspect. In this diocese, the government attempted to change (and actually changed) the confessional and political-cultural orientation of Belarussian Catholics. Under such circumstances, being a spiritual authority, the Catholic Bishop was a clear competitor to the authority and power of the secular governance, therefore attempts were made to regulate and control his activities. The Bishop’s exile created additional meanings to his photographs in respect of believers and secular government, especially by the end of the 19th c. with strengthening nationalistic moods among Russians and others (Poles, Lithuanians). Therefore, the Bishop’s photographs also became a long-term and successful objet of commerce.

Secularism is Inseparable from Religion

Secularism is Inseparable from Religion Tabish Khair (bio) If one talks of secularisation or secularism, one often has two very different meanings in mind. The smaller meaning relates to the non-participation of the government in religion. It insists that matters to do with governance cannot be identified or justified with reference to religion or religious belief. I will call this secular governance; usually this means a separation of state and religion, though it can also be interpreted, as it often seems to be in India, as an equal pandering to all religions by the state—a problematic position that, by default, slips over to a preference for the majority religion or accusations of state bias in favour of either minority or majority religions. Leaving the drawbacks aside, the notion of secular governance is often seen as tied to the larger notion of secularisation or secularism, which exceeds the practicalities of governance and refers to a worldview where the secular, sometimes equated with the scientific or the rational, is seen as inherently separate from and even opposed to the religious. This worldview is then supposed to inform the existence of secular governance, too. However, this is not the case. Secular governance is a pragmatic discourse, justified not just by the fact that all nations and cultures contain various religious beliefs, but also by the prior fact that even singular religions grow and differentiate across time and space. If the notions of democracy and human rights are added to this, secular governance becomes the only option for a nation – even one with just a single religion at that historical moment—that wants to avoid a future of slavery for the minorities, perennial conflict for all, and probably both at the same time. Here religion is a different sphere than governance, which relates to the secular business of running a state, and it is simply pragmatic to keep them separate. However, this is not the case with the larger—shall we say, philosophical and cultural—notion of secularism. This kind of secularism is intricately tied to religion: It can never exist as a separate sphere, contrary to what many secularists and rationalists claim. Actually, it is not possible to be secular in that larger sense except in the context of your own religious (which can also be identified culturally) heritage. Hence, a Muslim can only be secular with reference to and, if necessary, in opposition to, Islam, a Christian to Christianity, a Hindu to Hinduism. The claim that you are secular with reference to the other's belief or inheritance is basically an oxymoron. If you are from a Hindu background, you cannot claim to be secular because you do not believe that Jesus is the son of God. If you are from a Muslim heritage, you are not secular because you do not believe in the ten incarnations of Vishnu. Whatever secularism may be administratively and politically, its cultural meaning is always self-referential. That is why secularism is not just disbelief in religion but an on-going permutation of religious symbols and festivals into secular ones. The two go hand in hand. And both contain dangers. If one defines secularism as mere anti-religiosity, it is very easy to define it against other religions: hence today, in Europe, many Christians who claim to be secular while practicing Christian customs as a cultural inheritance, accuse Muslim immigrants of working against their national ethos of secularism. Similarly, Muslims in Muslim-minority places, like India, often demand secular governance, but do not see the need to question their belief in the Quran as a revelation containing all answers—a belief that, for instance, automatically raises issues like the need for sharia law, a demand that, no matter how it is defined, is essentially anti-secular. For secularism to be effective, it has to be turned inwards; it is not about the other but about the self, though it is born out of the necessary perception that the other can never be the self-same. The second danger is the slippage of secularism into basically that which the other lacks. As I noted earlier, secularism, because it relates finally to the self and the...

On Secular Governance: Lutheran Perspectives on Contemporary Legal Issues ed. by Ronald W. Duty and Marie A. Failinger

On Secular Governance: Lutheran Perspectives on Contemporary Legal Issues ed. by Ronald W. Duty and Marie A. Failinger

Why Is the European Union Being Deconstructed?

The European Union must be strengthened by better involvement of Civil Society . Societal coexistence between the various local cultures in the Union is anchored in three principles that are as simple as they are powerful. - Primacy of all human life (including equality of genders and equality of minorities); - Rule of law (including equality of all citizens in- and under the law); and - Democracy and secular governance (including autonomy of State and Church). These genetically and racially neutral values have given the Union the means and resilience to guarantee diversity and peace. The 2012 Nobel Peace Prize is a testimony to the success of the Union to ensuring peace between its Member States: “At a time of uncertainty, this reminds people across Europe and the world of the Union's fundamental purpose: to further the fraternity between European nations, now and in the future.” Now, the Union has to find its way in the 21st Century. Idealistic blindness and political naivety will deconstruct the Union and do as much damage as terrorist attacks. The Union has let external events take their course. It is forcing to be reactive rather than being able to shape its vision for the future. In view of the hyper-connected World and the digitalized global economy, the authors recommend: The EU needs to undertake a comprehensive reality check: agree on a realistic moral compass and develop an implementable “Grand Design”. Civil Society MUST be part of this process. In an attempt to wrestle the discourse away from the opportunists and populists on all sides of the spectrum, this paper analyses the situation and identifies fundamental principles and cornerstones of Europe and the European Union that need to be at the basis of political solutions. The EU MUST remain a union of shared values.

Secularism, sovereignty, and religious difference: A global genealogy?

This essay draws on one of the chapters of my new book Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Report published by Princeton University Press. In this book, I argue against the oft-repeated claim that the recent violence we have witnessed against religious minorities in the Middle East is a product of age-old Islamic hierarchies and religious antagonisms that characterize the region. Instead, I suggest that, while Islamic concepts are important, modern secular governance has played a crucial role in exacerbating religious tensions in the region, hardening interfaith boundaries and polarizing religious differences. This claim may appear counterintuitive to those who believe that secularism is a solution to the problem of religious strife rather than a force in its creation. My book challenges this assessment by examining the career of four cornerstones of secularism--political and civil equality, minority rights, religious freedom, and the legal separation of private and public domains-in the colonial and postcolonial Middle East, with a particular focus on Egypt. Far from securing a separation between religion and state, I argue, these concepts have made religious identity more rather than less consequential to national politics, amplified religious differences, and consecrated majoritarian religious values and norms within the laws of modern polities. My analysis here is indebted to the burgeoning field of secular studies that has, over the past two decades, definitively challenged the conventional account of secularism as the separation between church and state, religion and law, and ecclesiastical and political authority (Asad, 2003; Agrama, 2012; Bauberot, 2000; Connolly, 1999; Fernando, 2014; Fessenden, 2006; McLeod, 2000; Modern, 2011; Taylor, 2007). Scholars from a variety of disciplines have argued that modern secularism is far more than this minimalist formulation allows; it entails fundamental shifts in conceptions of self, time, space, ethics, and morality, as well as a reorganization of social, political, and religious life. The secular, in other words, is not the natural bedrock from which religion emerges, nor is it what remains when religion is taken away. Instead, it is itself a historical product with specific epistemological, political, and moral entailments-none of which can be adequately grasped through a nominal account of secularism as the modern state's retreat from religion. Broadly speaking, this emergent scholarship explores two distinct, albeit related, dimensions of the secular: political secularism and secularity. Secularism pertains to the modern state's relationship to, and regulation of, religion, while secularity refers to the set of concepts, norms, sensibilities, and dispositions that characterize secular societies and subjectivities. (1) This essay is concerned with political secularism, which, following Talal Asad (2006), I conceptualize as the modern state's sovereign power to reorganize substantive features of religious life, stipulating what religion is or ought to be, assigning its proper content, and disseminating concomitant subjectivities, ethical frameworks, and quotidian practices. The state's sovereign power to define and regulate religious life is neither monolithic nor predetermined. Rather, it is shot through with a generative contradiction. On the one hand, the liberal state claims to maintain a separation between church and state by relegating religion to the private sphere, that sacrosanct domain of religious belief and individual liberty. On the other hand, modern governmentality involves the state's intervention and regulation of many aspects of socioreligious life, dissolving the distinction between public and private and thereby contravening its first claim. This does not mean that the liberal state's ideological commitment to keep church and state apart is false or specious, or that secularism constrains religion rather than setting it free. …

On Secular Governance: Lutheran Perspectives on Contemporary Legal Issues. Edited by Ronald W. Duty and Marie A. Failinger

On Secular Governance: Lutheran Perspectives on Contemporary Legal Issues. Edited by Ronald W. Duty and Marie A. Failinger

Conquest of Paradise: Secular Binds and Coptic Political Mobilization

This article explores conflicts within the Coptic community related to problems of definition and representation. Coptic groups that emerged from Egypt’s 2011 revolution brought these tensions to the fore. Groups such as the prominent Maspero Youth Union (MYU) [Itihad Shabab Maspero] were formed to contest the hegemony of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egyptian national politics. The MYU and others have attempted to reconstruct social boundaries drawn by the Church and the state, promoting political secularism, or the separation of religion from politics, as a solution to inter-communal strife and remedy to intra-communal conflict over the position of the Coptic Orthodox Church as the sole representative of the community. At the same time, the group has emphasized their Coptic identity through religious symbols and imagery at protest events, as depicted at the Maspero memorial march in 2012. While the MYU officially endorsed secular governance as a means to overcome sectarianism, its actions also made visible internal conflicts over the representation of Coptic identity in contemporary Egyptian society. Although the promise of secularism and equal citizenship is not specific to the Coptic or Egyptian context, this article focuses on its paradoxical effects within the Coptic community and its relationship to the state.