Three cheers for liberal modesty

ABSTRACT

Many liberals have been immodest in postulating that their own progressive, secular liberalism is the only one that can be justified in public reason. In Liberalism’s Religion, I articulate a more modest theory of liberalism and religion. While I personally endorse progressive secular liberalism, I argue that it is only one of the reasonable conceptions of liberal justice. This liberal modesty has profound, hitherto unnoticed implications for (i) the role of religious arguments in the public sphere, (ii) the legitimacy of religious establishment, and (iii) the justifiability of religious exemptions. In this article, I defend these three claims by providing replies to my critics.     

党的第三代领导集体关于宗教和宗教问题的论述

党的十三届四中全会以来,以江泽民同志为核心的党的第三代领导集体,根据冷战结束后国际格局的一系列变化和民族宗教问题发展的形势,结合我国改革开放和现代化建设的新实践,提出了一系列关于宗教和宗教问题的基本观点。     

宗教妇女观对妇女现代化的影响

宗教关于妇女的地位、权利和义务、婚姻、品行等问题,均有许多看法,具有二重性,既有尊重妇女、符合主流社会规范的观念,也有贬低妇女、妨碍妇女发展的思想。在现代社会,宗教的妇女观对妇女的现代化依然有较大的影响。宗教的妇女观对妇女现代化有许多有益的启示和借鉴,有助于妇女实现观念、行为、人格的现代化。     

都市民族社区的宗教生活与文化认同--昆明顺城街回族社区调查

长期以来,昆明顺城街回族社区居民共同的宗教生活,促成了他们对本民族文化的认同,维系了回族社区的存在。但在现代文化的冲击和都市文化的濡化下,该地区居民的宗教信仰和宗教活动也发生着不断的变化,出现了中老年人对伊斯兰教更虔诚,对本民族的文化认同感增强,而年轻人却与之相悖而行的状况。     

非法宗教活动对国家主流文化安全的威胁与破坏--以新疆为例

本文在对新疆地区非法宗教活动进行梳理的基础上，着力分析了非法宗教活动对新疆地区主流文化安全的威胁与破坏，把脉影响新疆稳定安全的重大现实问题，旨在引起高度重视，有效加以应对，维护边疆稳定与国家安全。     

社会转型期青年的宗教需求研究——广州青年的宗教信仰调查分析

通过对广州青年的宗教信仰进行实证调查,发现广州青年宗教活动参与制度化程度较低;不同年龄,不同性别,是否独生子女,其信教的动机不同;家庭环境是信教青年了解、皈依宗教的最重要途径。宗教让信教青年获得心灵的宁静、更明确的人生目标,但对幸福感影响不明显。研究建议,关注青年的情感需求,用"无私的爱"进一步拉近共青团组织与青年的距离,用分类引导的手法切实提升青年工作实效。     

MAINTAINING A UNITARY STATE: COUNTER-TERRORISM,SEPARATISM, AND EXTREMISM IN XINJIANG AND CHINA

This essay reviews the history of Uighur related terrorism in Xinjiang as well as elsewhere in China and discusses the political motivations and effectiveness of the Chinese government in suppressing terrorism. The essay assesses both the motivations of the Uighurs engaged in terrorism, as well as the motivations for counter terrorist by the Chinese authorities. A key objective of the essay is to determine what are the political and other reasons that drive the Chinese government’s counter terrorism strategy and tactics and whether these have been effective or counter-productive. The essay assesses the counter terrorism strategy of the Chinese government in Xinjiang Province and across China, the political motivations for the strategy, the impact and success or otherwise. The essay discusses if the government is combatting terrorism, or separatism, or extremism, the confusion of these terms, and whether this has had any impact on the effectiveness of counter terrorism.     

Between Christian and multicultural democracy: religious legacies and minority politics

The article presents a comparative analysis of the religious underpinnings of 19 liberal democracies in the West and their relevance for contemporary minority politics. The democratic relevance of religion is conceptualised as stemming from actors (churches, religious parties) and from historical and structural factors such as confessional patterns, relationships between state and church and degrees of secularisation in 19 democracies with a Christian background. The article’s historical mapping demonstrates that democratic development has occurred in distinct patterns rooted in the Catholic?Protestant divide. It then demonstrates that there are distinct effects of this divide on minority politics. It is hypothesised that in line with the confessional patterning of democratisation, Catholic countries and actors seem to be more resistant to the pressures arising from religious pluralisation than Protestant ones and that, even after 9/11, there is no cross-national or cross-confessional convergence in these responses.     

THE INDIAN CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY AND THE MAKING OF HINDUS AND MUSLIMS IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR

Article 370 of the Indian constitution gives the northern province of Jammu and Kashmir special status within the union. Today that provision forms a nucleus of fierce political contention between secularists and religious nationalists in India, despite the manifest whittling down of the article's most significant aspects. This development is counterintuitive: the original intent of the article's introduction had no relation to questions of religion. This essay attempts to understand this unanticipated role, as a marker of the state's secularity or lack thereof, the article has come to play in Indian politics. It contends that the seeds were sown even at the time of shaping the Indian constitution of a perspective that viewed the people of Jammu and Kashmir according to their religious affiliations.     

They are from within us: CVE brokerage in South-central Somalia

ABSTRACT

This article explores how societal actors in Somalia take part in a transnational politics of countering/preventing violent extremism (CVE/PVE) through a political sociological approach to militarisation. We argue that the transnational politics of CVE represents an extension of global militarism by some states, institutions, donors and brokers. CVE works to adapt global militarism and to reconfigure the global-local relationships that sustain it. We explore the roles and influence of local ‘CVE brokers’ in deradicalisation efforts in South-central Somalia. They inadvertently merge the counter-terrorism approach to Somali people, values and territory with non-military means. We show that their key practices – co-ordination, translation and alignment – advance, but also disrupt, alter and transform CVE policy objectives.