Religion in politics

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Religion in politics covers various topics related to the effects of religion on politics. Religion has been claimed to be "the source of some of the most remarkable political mobilizations of our times". [1]

Contents

Religious political doctrines

Various political doctrines have been directly influenced or inspired by religions. Various strands of Political Islam exist, with most of them falling under the umbrella term of Islamism. Graham Fuller has argued for a broader notion of Islamism as a form of identity politics, involving "support for [Muslim] identity, authenticity, broader regionalism, revivalism, [and] revitalization of the community." [2] This frequently may take a socially conservative or reactionary form, as in wahhabism and salafism. Ideologies which espouse Islamic modernism include Islamic socialism and Post-Islamism.

Christian political movements range from Christian socialism, Christian communism, and Christian anarchism on the left, to Christian democracy on the centre, [3] to the Christian right.

Beyond universalist ideologies, religions have also been involved in nationalist politics. Hindu nationalism exists in the Hindutva movement. Religious Zionism seeks to create a religious Jewish state. The Khalistan movement aims to create a homeland for Sikhs.

An extreme form of religious political action is religious terrorism. Islamic terrorism has been evident in the actions of the Islamic State, Boko Haram, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, all of these organizations practice jihadism. Christian terrorism has been connected to anti-abortion violence and white supremacy, [4] for example in the Christian Identity movement. Saffron terror describes terrorism connected to Hinduism. There has also been cases of Jewish religious terrorism, such as the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, as well as of Sikh terrorism, such as the bombing of Air India Flight 182.

Religious political issues

Religious political issues may involve, but are not limited to, those concerning freedom of religion, applications of religious law, and the right to religious education.

Religion and the state

States have adopted various attitudes towards religions, ranging from theocracy to state atheism.

A theocracy is "government by divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided". [5] Modern day recognised theocracies include the Islamic Republic of Iran [6] and the Holy See, [7] while the Taliban and Islamic State are insurgencies attempting to create such polities. Historical examples include the Islamic Caliphates and the Papal States.

Map of states with official religions. State Religions.svg
Map of states with official religions.

A more modest form of religious state activity is having an official state religion. Unlike a theocracy, this maintains the superiority of the state over the religious authorities. Over 20% (a total of 43) of the countries in the world have a state religion, most of them (27) being Muslim countries. [8] There are also 13 officially Buddhist countries such as Bhutan, [9] while state churches are present in 27 countries.

In contrast to religious states, secular states recognise no religion. This is often called the principle of the separation of church and state. A more extreme version, Laïcité, is practiced in France, which prohibits all religious expressions in many public contexts. [10]

Some states are explicitly atheistic, usually those which were produced by revolution, such as various socialist states or the French First Republic.

There have also been cases of states creating their own religions, such as imperial cults or the Cult of Reason.

Religion and political behaviour

Frameworks on religion and political identity

Understanding religion’s impact on political behaviour is essential because of its complex relationship to the individual: for a political subject, faith is at once an ideology and an identity. [11] As a result, political scientists are divided on whether to consider it alongside other ethnic cleavages such as race, language, caste, and tribe, or whether to recognise it as a separate, special kind of political influence. [12]

Daniel N. Posner holds the former perspective: that religion should be conflated with identity. He underlines that identity is important in politics not because of some “passions [or] traditions it embodies”, but because it reflects “the expected behaviour of other political factors”. [13] In such a framework, religion is treated as a fungible label that can be ‘activated’ and constitute a criterion for membership in an ethnic group. [14]

The latter perspective has been argued by relatively recent scholars, advocating for “(More) Serious” [11] attention to religion in Comparative Politics. Grzymala-Busse outlines three often overlooked characteristics of religion which differentiate it from other markers of identity:

  1. Its power to transcend national boundaries. Religion ss arguably the largest unit to which individuals claim loyalty (Islam claims roughly 1.5 billion adherents, Christianity roughly 2 billion – respectively 22% and 33% of the world’s population). [11]
  2. Its demanding commitment by followers to a specific lifestyle, affecting dress codes, diets, political views – religion proposes an alternative lifestyle defined by “supernatural” forces. [15]
  3. Its strength of resistance to secular onslaught because of abnormally “high stakes” like eternal salvation or damnation, making religion much less “pliable” than other ethnic identities. [11]

Considering these characteristics, it becomes possible to consider religion as a unique identity variable with immense power. Several analyses even regard religion as a variable so potent that it is able to reinforce other identities, and as a result allows religious components in secular spheres of society (see: Iversen and Rosenbluth, 2006; Trejo, 2009; Grossman, 2015). [16] [17] [18]

Debates about religion in politics

There have been arguments for and against a role for religion in politics. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown has argued that "faith and state should be kept separate" as "the most sinister and oppressive states in the world are those that use God to control the minds and actions of their populations", such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. [19] To this, Dawn Foster has responded that when religion is fully unmoored from politics it becomes all the more insular and more open to abuse". [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fundamentalism</span> Unwavering attachment to a set of irreducible beliefs

Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that is characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguishing one's ingroup and outgroup, which leads to an emphasis on some conception of "purity", and a desire to return to a previous ideal from which advocates believe members have strayed. The term is usually used in the context of religion to indicate an unwavering attachment to a set of irreducible beliefs.

Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theocracy</span> Form of government with religious leaders

Theocracy is a form of government in which one or more deities are recognized as supreme ruling authorities, giving divine guidance to human intermediaries who manage the government's daily affairs, or in which human leaders who follow a certain religion are thought of as the ideal and only class of ruler.

Religious nationalism can be understood in a number of ways, such as nationalism as a religion itself, a position articulated by Carlton Hayes in his text Nationalism: A Religion, or as the relationship of nationalism to a particular religious belief, dogma, ideology, or affiliation. This relationship can be broken down into two aspects: the politicisation of religion and the influence of religion on politics.

Political Islam is any interpretation of Islam as a source of political identity and action. It can refer to a wide range of individuals or groups who advocate the formation of state and society according to their understanding of Islamic principles. It may also refer to use of Islam as a source of political positions and concepts. Political Islam represents one aspect of the Islamic revival that began in the 20th century, and not all forms of political activity by Muslims are discussed under the rubric of political Islam. Most academic authors use the term Islamism to describe the same phenomenon or use the two terms interchangeably. There are new attempts to distinguish between Islamism as religiously based political movements and political Islam as a national modern understanding of Islam shared by secular and Islamist actors.

The term Islamic republic has been used in different ways. Some Muslim religious leaders have used it as the name for a theoretical form of Islamic theocratic government enforcing sharia, or laws compatible with sharia. The term has also been used for a sovereign state taking a compromise position between a purely Islamic caliphate and a secular, nationalist republic — neither an Islamic monarchy nor secular republic. In other cases it is used merely as a symbol of cultural identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Secularism in France</span> Separation of church and state in France

Laïcité is the constitutional principle of secularism in France. Article 1 of the French Constitution is commonly interpreted as discouraging religious involvement in government affairs, especially religious influence in the determination of state policies. It also forbids government involvement in religious affairs, and especially prohibits government influence in the determination of religion. Secularism in France includes a right to the free exercise of religion.

Religious discrimination is treating a person or group differently because of the particular beliefs which they hold about a religion. This includes instances when adherents of different religions, denominations or non-religions are treated unequally due to their particular beliefs, either by the law or in institutional settings, such as employment or housing.

Christian terrorism, a form of religious terrorism, comprises terrorist acts which are committed by groups or individuals who profess Christian motivations or goals. Christian terrorists justify their violent tactics through their interpretation of the Bible and Christianity, in accordance with their own objectives and worldview.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religious violence</span> Violence practiced in the name of religion

Religious violence covers phenomena in which religion is either the subject or the object of violent behavior. All the religions of the world contain narratives, symbols, and metaphors of violence and war. Religious violence is violence that is motivated by, or in reaction to, religious precepts, texts, or the doctrines of a target or an attacker. It includes violence against religious institutions, people, objects, or events. Religious violence does not exclusively include acts which are committed by religious groups, instead, it includes acts which are committed against religious groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kemalism</span> Founding ideology of Turkey

Kemalism, also known as Atatürkism, or The Six Arrows, is the founding and official ideology of the Republic of Turkey. Kemalism, as it was implemented by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk after the declaration of Republic in 1923, was defined by sweeping political, social, cultural and religious reforms designed to separate the new Turkish state from its Ottoman predecessor and embrace a Western-style modernized lifestyle, including the establishment of secularism/laicism, state support of the sciences, free education, gender equality, economic statism and many more. Most of those policies were first introduced to and implemented in Turkey during Atatürk's presidency through his reforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olivier Roy (political scientist)</span> French political scientist

Olivier Roy is a French political scientist, professor at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. He has published articles and books on secularisation and Islam including "Global Islam", and The Failure of Political Islam. He is known to have "a different view of radical Islam" than some other experts, seeing it as peripheral, Westernized and part of a radicalized and "virtual" rather than pious and "actual" Muslim community. More recently he has written on the Charlie Hebdo shooting, and the November 2015 Paris attacks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural Muslims</span> Non-practicing Muslims who still identify with Islam

Cultural Muslims or nominal Muslims or non-practicing/observing Muslims are people who identify as Muslims but are not religious and do not practice the faith. They may be a non-observing, secular or irreligious individuals who still identify with Islam due to family backgrounds, personal experiences, ethnic and national heritage, or the social and cultural environment in which they grew up. However, this concept is not always met with acceptance in conservative Islamic communities.

Confessionalism is a system of government that is a de jure mix of religion and politics. It typically entails distributing political and institutional power proportionally among confessional communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Secularism in Turkey</span> Separation of the mosque/religion and government/state in Turkey

In Turkey, secularism or laicism was first introduced with the 1928 amendment of the Constitution of 1924, which removed the provision declaring that the "Religion of the State is Islam", and with the later reforms of Turkey's first president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, which set the administrative and political requirements to create a modern, democratic, secular state, aligned with Kemalism.

Religion in Iran has been shaped by multiple religions and sects over the course of the country's history. Zoroastrianism was the main followed religion during the Achaemenid Empire, Parthian Empire, and Sasanian Empire. Another Iranian religion known as Manichaeanism was present in Iran during this period. Jewish and Christian communities thrived, especially in the territories of northwestern, western, and southern Iran—mainly Caucasian Albania, Asoristan, Persian Armenia, and Caucasian Iberia. A significant number of Iranian peoples also adhered to Buddhism in what was then eastern Iran, such as the regions of Bactria and Sogdia.

Azerbaijan is a multicultural and multi-religious country and a secular country. The article 48 of The Constitution of Azerbaijan states that the right to liberty and the right of people of all faiths may choose and practice their religion without restriction is ensured. Article 18 of the Constitution of Azerbaijan states that religion acts separately from the state affairs and the government. People of all religions are considered equal in the Azerbaijani law. While majority of the population is Muslim, the proselytization of Islam in the country, as well as other religions, is prohibited strictly by the government through policies of state secularism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religion in Cameroon</span> Overview of religion in Cameroon

Christianity is the majority religion in Cameroon, with significant minorities of the adherents of Islam and traditional faiths.

Albania has been a secular state since its founding in 1912, despite various changes in political systems. During the 20th century after Independence (1912) the democratic, monarchic and later the totalitarian communist regimes followed a systematic secularisation of the nation and the national culture. The Albanian understanding of secularism has strong influences from the French laïcité.

The status of religious freedom in Asia varies from country to country. States can differ based on whether or not they guarantee equal treatment under law for followers of different religions, whether they establish a state religion, the extent to which religious organizations operating within the country are policed, and the extent to which religious law is used as a basis for the country's legal code.

References

  1. ↑ Jelen, Ted G. (2002). Religion and Politics in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge University Press. p. 1.
  2. ↑ Fuller, Graham E., The Future of Political Islam, Palgrave MacMillan, (2003), p. 21
  3. ↑ Boswell, Jonathan (2013). Community and the Economy: The Theory of Public Co-operation. Routledge. p. 160. ISBN   9781136159015.
  4. ↑ "Hate In God's Name". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
  5. ↑ "Theocracy | political system". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
  6. ↑ "Inside Iran - The Structure Of Power In Iran | Terror And Tehran | FRONTLINE | PBS". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
  7. ↑ "Vatican City Created". National Geographic Society. 2013-12-16. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
  8. ↑ correspondent, Harriet Sherwood Religion (2017-10-03). "More than 20% of countries have official state religions – survey". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2019-12-01.
  9. ↑ "Religion". www.bhutan.com. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
  10. ↑ Winkler, Elizabeth (2016-01-07). "Is it Time for France to Abandon Laïcité?". The New Republic. ISSN   0028-6583 . Retrieved 2019-12-01.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Anna Grzymala-Busse, “Why Comparative Politics Should Take Religion (More) Seriously,” Annual Review of Political Science 15, no. 1 (June 15, 2012): 421–42, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-033110-130442
  12. ↑ Kenneth D. Wald and Clyde Wilcox,“Getting Religion: Has Political Science Rediscovered the Faith Factor?,” American Political Science Review 100, no. 04 (November 2006): 523, https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055406062381.
  13. ↑ Posner, Daniel N. Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
  14. ↑ Chandra K, ed. 2012. Constructivist Theories of Ethnic Politics. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Political Science, New York University.
  15. ↑ Stark R, Finke R. 2000. Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  16. ↑ Torben Iversen and Frances Rosenbluth, “The Political Economy of Gender: Explaining Cross-National Variation in the Gender Division of Labor and the Gender Voting Gap,” American Journal of Political Science 50, no. 1 (2006): 1–19, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3694253.
  17. ↑ Trejo 2009. “Religious competition and ethnic mobilization in Latin America: why the Catholic Church promotes indigenous movements in Mexico.
  18. ↑ Guy Grossman,“Renewalist Christianity and the Political Saliency of LGBTs: Theory and Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa,” The Journal of Politics 77, no. 2 (April 2015): 337–51, https://doi.org/10.1086/679596.
  19. 1 2 "Should religion play a role in politics?". New Internationalist. 2019-01-29. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
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