Liberalism and religion: the plural grounds of separation

ABSTRACT

In what sense, and to what extent, should a liberal state be secular? Many interpret liberal-egalitarian political theory as dictating a radical separation between church and state. Against this view, Cécile Laborde has powerfully argued that, in fact, liberal-egalitarianism is not committed to strict separation as such. Laborde understands the liberal-egalitarian commitment to separation as ultimately grounded on a principle of neutrality. However, she argues that the conception of neutrality to which liberal egalitarians are committed is much more ‘restricted’ than it is often thought. If a commitment to separation is derivative from a commitment to neutrality, then, if neutrality is restricted, secularism is minimal. This means that not all forms of religious establishment should be regarded as impermissible from a liberal-egalitarian perspective. Contra Laborde, I argue that restricted neutrality should not be understood as the only ground of separation. Separation has plural grounds. Forms of religious recognition that do not violate any of the requirements of restricted neutrality may still be regarded as impermissible from a liberal-egalitarian perspective, if they (1) violate a basic commitment to fairness, (2) treat citizens in a patronizing way and/or (3) violate, in their justification, a requirement of sincerity, as grounded on reciprocity.     

习惯法视角下的客家民间宗教——以五华县平安村为例

当前客家乡村,以五华县平安村为例,民间宗教信仰遗风犹存,其作为习惯法在规范乡村公民言行乃至解决纠纷方面有独特的作用.待之以居高临下的“科学”态度并不妥当,而在国家法框架内尽量作具体的容纳是正途.     

Conceptualizing lived religious citizenship: a case-study of Christian and Muslim women in Norway and the United Kingdom

The concept of ‘religious citizenship’ is increasingly being used by scholars, but there are few attempts at defining it. This article argues that rights-based definitions giving primacy to status and rights are too narrow, and that feminist approaches to citizenship foregrounding identity, belonging and participation, as well as an ethic of care, provide a more comprehensive understanding of how religious women understand and experience their own ‘religious citizenship’. Findings from interviews with Christian and Muslim women in Oslo and Leicester suggest a close relationship between religious women's faith and practice (‘lived religion’) and their ‘lived citizenship’. However, gender inequalities and status differences between majority and minority religions produce challenges to rights-based approaches to religious citizenship.     

论傣族宗教信仰的多元结构

作为民族文化的重要组成部分,傣族宗教在傣族文化中占有突出的地位,它在各个领域都打上了宗教的烙印。傣族宗教的最大特色是外来宗教与本地信仰并存。傣族宗教是傣族社会中发展起来的本地信仰与其中浸透着外来成分的小乘佛教、基督教等宗教的多元结合体。     

析我国民族宗教群体性事件的成因、特点及处置对策

建国以来,我国各民族间和睦相处,呈现出民族团结、经济发展、政治稳定、社会进步的大好局面。但在新的历史条件下,也存在一些不容忽视的问题,如有些地方民族宗教群体性事件时有发生,影响社会稳定和民族团结。民族宗教地区因为其特殊的历史背景、文化传统以及其特殊地位、作用,成为国内不稳定的一个潜在因素。因此,探索和研究新形势下民族宗教群体性事件的成因、特点和处置对策。对于减少由民族与宗教问题引起的群体性事件,改善民族间的关系,维护国家安全和祖国统一,构建社会主义和谐社会具有重要意义。     

政教关系释义

宗教与社会各个层面既有协调的关系,又有矛盾、复杂的互动.其中,政治与宗教关系的变动最为关键.它决定了执政者必须考量如何引导宗教的正常有序的发展的问题.政教分离是现代政治学的一项原则.宗教与社会主义在信仰上的差异是次要的差异,它们在政治上、在经济上的根本利益是相同、相通的.中国共产党代表最广大人民群众的根本利益,当然也包括广大信教群众的利益.依法管理宗教事务的根本目的,是为了更好地保护正常的宗教活动和宗教界的合法权益,也是为了更好地、全面地贯彻宗教信仰自由政策.     

From Islam en France to Islam de France: contradictions of the French left's responses to Islam

ABSTRACT

The political class in France, especially the left, has been profoundly shaped by the revolutionary heritage of 1789. Determined to combat the determinisms that fractured French society under the ancien régime, such as religion, the individual was reconfigured, first as a citizen and then, by the left, as indistinguishable from a class, the proletariat. While in both cases the conceptualization of the individual had the benefit of unity and clarity, the abstract nature of these notions too often left out those very factors that are most significant to those individuals themselves for their self-definition. Moreover, the social transformation of France since the 1960s has exposed the culture-specific conditioning that underlay the apparent neutrality of the conceptualization of the individual bequeathed by 1789. Raymond explores how the left has struggled with its intellectual heritage in its relationship with minorities, especially Muslims, from the xenophobic populism of the Communists in the early 1980s to the recognition proposed by some Socialists during their last period in government. Paradoxically, the institutional accommodation reached with the Islamic community by the centre-right governments of the past decade, notably the creation of the Conseil Français du Culte Musulman (French Council of the Muslim Faith) in 2002, built on the initiatives of previous Socialist administrations. They set the course for a better integration of the Muslim community by transforming Islam en France (Islam in France) into an Islam de France (French Islam). But in spite of the initial impetus given by the Socialists to the institutional assimilation of Islam, their reactions to the emergence of a French Islamic identity remain contradictory. The question therefore persists as to whether the left in France, impregnated by a historically conditioned secularism, can be reconciled with a community defined by its faith through the emergence of a ‘Gallican’ Islam, or whether the time has come for a fundamental reappraisal of the ideology of the French left, and even the Republic itself.     

A crisis of trust: history,politics, religion and the polio controversy in Northern Nigeria

ABSTRACT

In the middle of 2003, disagreement over the safety of the oral polio vaccine pitted ordinary citizens and community leaders in the predominantly Muslim north of Nigeria against the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund and Nigeria's federal authorities. During the crisis that ensued, five northern states (Niger, Bauchi, Kano, Zamfara and Kaduna) banned the use of the controversial vaccine on children in their respective domains. Underpinning Obadare's paper is the assumption that the immunization crisis is best understood after considering developments in the broader politico-religious contexts, both local and global. Thus, he locates the controversy as a whole against the background of the deepening interface between health and politics. He suggests that the crisis is best seen as emanating from a dearth of trust in social intercourse between ordinary citizens and the Nigerian state on the one hand, and between the same citizens and international health agencies and pharmaceutical companies on the other. The analysis of trust is historically embedded in order to illuminate the dynamics of relations among the identified actors.     

西部民族地区毒品犯罪之宗教防治功能

西部民族地区毒品犯罪防治具有特殊性,其中宗教因素能够发挥其防治毒品犯罪的社会控制功能。宗教对有关毒品违法犯罪问题持有否定性态度,这对西部民族地区防治毒品犯罪宣传教育等工作具有重要作用,并且对法律规范起到一定的补充作用。