Islam and power legitimation: instrumentalisation of religion in Central Asian States

How can Islam play multiple and contradictory roles as a source of violence and peace, and a marker of identity differences and national unity? This study argues that religion, as a system of beliefs, manifests itself through discourses, which not only render intelligibility to religious practices and beliefs but also serve as the instruments of social control and regulation. An infinite variety of organizational and ideological differences within Islam presents the possibility for instrumentalisation of religion by stakeholders interested in accomplishing distinctive political aims connected to political legitimation. The study offers an empirical analysis of instrumentalisation of Islam by governments of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and uses this evidence for developing a framework linking various discursive representations of religion to their political uses.     

正确处理社会主义初级阶段民族宗教问题维护民族地区社会稳定

在社会主义初期阶段 ,民族地区的主要矛盾是人民日益增长的物质文化需要同落后的社会生产之间的矛盾 ;民族宗教问题主要是人民内部矛盾 ;民族宗教领域的敌我矛盾往往和人民内部矛盾交织在一起 ;民族宗教矛盾的暂时尖锐化与外国势力插手有关。历史上处理民族宗教问题的最大教训是“左”。维护民族地区社会稳定的首要问题是发展社会生产力 ,而经济社会的发展有赖于稳定的社会环境 ;当前民族地区反“西化”和“分化”斗争中最危险的倾向是和平麻痹 ;公安机关的任务主要是防范和打击境内外敌对势力操纵的民族分裂活动和非法宗教活动。     

Systematic review of religious affiliations and beliefs as correlates of public attitudes toward capital punishment

Religious reasons are frequently described as considerations that shape support for or opposition to capital punishment; however, there are many inconsistencies in the literature. This study represents a systematic review of the extant research on religious affiliations and beliefs as correlates of public attitudes toward capital punishment. Searches conducted in five databases identified 33 articles, representing 97,570 respondents. Results revealed that people belonging to Protestant affiliations and with negative images of God were more likely to support capital punishment. People possessing positive images of God and with strong beliefs in compassion were less likely to support capital punishment. The religious correlates commonly assessed in the extant literature, such as fundamentalism, are not significant correlates of attitudes toward capital punishment. Findings also revealed that the predominance of research examined Christian religious affiliations, to the exclusion of other common affiliations, such as Buddhist or Islamic affiliations. Taken together, findings suggest that compared to affiliations, religious beliefs better explain attitudes toward capital punishment. Further research is needed to investigate the ways religious correlates influence death qualified jury selection and capital sentencing decisions. An increased understanding of the nuanced relationship between religion and capital punishment attitudes can better inform capital punishment policy and practice.     

Liberalism and Religion: Amplifiers of War between Democratic and Non-Democratic States?

This study tests the association between liberalism and religion on militarized disputes in the politically and religiously similar and mixed state dyads. The analysis (1980–2001) integrates the Correlates of War and World Religion Datasets. The findings suggest that while religious makeup of state dyads does not vitiate the impact of democracy, religious similarity amplifies the impact of liberalism. The results also suggest that Christian–Muslim dyads, especially Christian–Sunni and Christian–Muslim other than Shia and Sunni dyads, are more likely to engage in militarized disputes, and regime differences increase the chances of conflict in the joint Muslim dyads.     

Religion and the State: The Singularity of the Jordanian Religious Experience

The history of the Islamic movement in Jordan displays glaring contrasts with its counterparts in other Islamic countries such as Egypt, pre-Revolutionary Iran, and Syria. In a marked departure from a history of violence that characterized the relationship between the state and the Islamic opposition in these countries, the Jordanian Muslim Brothers was not only a peaceful movement but also often defended the state against the challenges of radical ideologies. Following the democratization process launched by the late King Hussein, the Muslim Brothers participated in electoral politics. To adapt itself to the new pluralistic environment, the movement displayed a move toward secularization. This process was reflected in an organizational differentiation and the rationalization of religious discourse. This paper attempts to explain this remarkable phenomenon by first considering the effects of the structure, ideology, and cultural policies of the state and of the development of social classes on the Islamic movement. It then considers the way in which the legal framework and political pluralism in the 1990s contributed to the secularization of the movement.     

Constitutional authority and prospects for social justice for high-tension religious communities

By regulating religious practice, the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment challenges the authority of religious communities who may not have adopted American pluralism in favor of their own religious particularism. While the power of the Constitution is manifested in physical modes, its historic symbolic and socially constructed meaning elevates it as a competing transcending authority that challenges religious communities. Often labeled American civil religion, this authority either coerces non-mainstream religious communities to adopt modes of religious expression that mirror those of the dominant culture, or requires them to adopt a strategy for coping with its overwhelming social and political power. The Constitution's mechanism for guaranteeing religious free exercise thus serves as a method to limit religious particularism by coercing limited cultural orthodoxy through legal orthopraxy.Teach the [Constitution's] principles, teach them to your children, speak of them when sitting in your home, speak of them when walking by the way, when lying down and when rising up, write them upon the doorplate of your home and upon your gates. John Quincy AdamsRepeated by former Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger (Franklin, 1987). The passage is a slight alteration of Deuteronomy 6:7–9.     

菲律宾"安蒂波罗女神"信仰与"妈祖"信仰对比研究

菲律宾是一个海岛国家,在不同的历史时期形成了不同形式的海上信仰形式,其中之一就是安蒂波罗女神信仰.本文主要分为三个部分.第一部分介绍了安蒂波罗女神信仰的形成过程,第二部分运用功能主义学派的观点分析了这一民间信仰形式在菲律宾社会中三个方面的功能.第三部分对比安蒂波罗女神信仰和福建妈祖信仰在社会功能、形成过程、表现形式等方面的异同.在对比研究的基础上,笔者强调功能的相似性决定了文化形式的相似性.     

Holy Mountains and Anti-Cult Ecology: The Campaign Against the Aumist Religion in France

After the homicides and suicides of the Solar Temple (1994–1995), anti-cult movements received an unprecedented degree of public support in France, and a moral panic against cults was generated, eventually producing two parliamentary reports and the establishment of a governmental Mission to Fight Cults. The Aumist Religion, headquartered at the Holy City of the Mandarom, in the French Alps, although comparatively small, became one of the most visible targets and was perceived by anti-cultists, the media, and the government as the epitome of the dangerous cult. The paper examines the history of the Madaron controversies, especially the involvement of government-financed anti-cult organizations and representatives of the ecology movement, and argues that the Aumists' greatest sin is their very visibility.     

Interrupting the Myth of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Partage</Emphasis>: Reflections on Sovereignty and Sacrifice in the work of Nancy,Agamben and Derrida

Agamben traces the bio-political essence of modern politics to the non-sacrificial killing of Homo Sacer in Roman law. Nancy, on the other hand, links the history of Western politics to the fundamental logic of sacrifice in Western metaphysics. He nevertheless contemplates the possibility that Western societies may finally have arrived at the threshold of a non-sacrificial existence. Derrida seeks to resist the sacrificial logic of Western metaphysics and politics, but nevertheless appears to accept it as an irreducible fact of human co-existence. Unlike Nancy, he envisages no actual or actualised beyond beyond the realm of sacrificial metaphysics and politics. He thus can be said to interrupt Nancy’s ‘myth’ of a non-sacrificial partage. This article compares these three philosophical stances in the hope of throwing more light on the role of sacrifice in the law and politics of our time. Professor of Law, Rand Afrikaans University. Conversations with Ann van Sevenant, Carol Clarkson, Louise du Toit, Peter Fitzpatrick, Costas Douzinas and Adam Thurschwell gave impetus to many of the themes developed in this article. Concomitant shortcomings and inaccuracies, as always, are mine.     

宪法之信仰

“法律必须被信仰,否则它将形同虚设”,伯尔曼先生的这句箴言同样适用于我国的法治建设。而对法律信仰的建构又应以宪法信仰的建构为首要任务。在当前的形势下,我们不应忽视对宪法宗教性基础的挖掘与深思。宪法信仰与宗教信仰有独特的契合点。要建构宪法法之信仰必须确立宪法的权威,完善诉讼的仪式,增进宪法真善美的内容,提高公民的宪法意识。