Secularism is the principle of being indifferent to or skeptical and/or critical of religious belief.
Laïcité is the constitutional principle of secularism in France. Article 1 of the French Constitution is commonly interpreted as the separation of civil society and religious society. It discourages religious involvement in government affairs, especially in the determination of state policies as well as the recognition of a state religion. It also forbids government involvement in religious affairs, and especially prohibits government influence in the determination of religion, such that it includes a right to the free exercise of religion.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people living in Lebanon may face discrimination and legal difficulties not experienced by non-LGBT residents, although they have more freedom than in other parts of the Arab world. Various courts have ruled that Article 534 of the Lebanese Penal Code, which prohibits having sexual relations that "contradict the laws of nature", should not be used to arrest LGBT people. Nonetheless, the law is still being used to harass and persecute LGBT people through occasional police arrests, in which detainees are sometimes subject to intrusive physical examinations.
Human Rights in Lebanon refers to the state of human rights in Lebanon, which were considered to be on par with global standards in 2004. Some believed to be criminals and terrorists are said to be detained without charge for both short and long periods of time. Freedom of speech and of the press are ensured to the citizens by the Lebanese laws which protect the freedom of each citizen. Palestinians living in Lebanon are heavily deprived of basic civil rights. They cannot own homes or land, and are barred from becoming lawyers, engineers and doctors. However, the Lebanese government has reduced the number of restricted jobs and created a national dialogue committee for the issue. During the Arab Spring, Lebanon experienced major protests and sectarian violence, but avoided the large-scale political upheaval seen in many parts of the Arab world.
Saba Mahmood (1961–2018) was professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. At Berkeley, she was also affiliated with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Institute for South Asia Studies, and the Program in Critical Theory. Her scholarly work straddled debates in anthropology and political theory, with a focus on Muslim majority societies of the Middle East and South Asia. Mahmood made major theoretical contributions to rethinking the relationship between ethics and politics, religion and secularism, freedom and submission, and reason and embodiment. Influenced by the work of Talal Asad, she wrote on issues of gender, religious politics, secularism, and Muslim and non-Muslim relations in the Middle East.
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.
The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain or CEMB is the British branch of the Central Council of Ex-Muslims. It was launched in Westminster on 22 June 2007.
Lebanon is an eastern Mediterranean country that has the most religiously diverse society within the Middle East, comprising 18 recognized religious sects. The religions are Islam and Christianity. The Druze comprise around 5% of Lebanon's population.
Jewish secularism refers to secularism in a Jewish context, denoting the definition of Jewish identity with little or no attention given to its religious aspects. The concept of Jewish secularism first arose in the late 19th century, with its influence peaking during the interwar period.
The roles of women in Lebanon have evolved throughout history. The legal status of women transformed over the 20th century, but traditional patriarchal norms and conservative versions of Islamic law continue to influence women's rights in Lebanon.
According to Article 9 of the Lebanese Constitution, all religions and creeds are to be protected and the exercise of freedom of religion is to be guaranteed providing that the public order is not disturbed. The Constitution declares equality of rights and duties for all citizens without discrimination or preference. Nevertheless, power is distributed among different religious and sectarian groups. The position of president is reserved for a Maronite Christian; the role of Presidency of Parliament for a Shiite Muslim; and the role of Prime Minister for a Sunni Muslim. The government has generally respected these rights; however, the National Pact agreement in 1943 restricted the constitutional provision for apportioning political offices according to religious affiliation. There have been periodic reports of tension between religious groups, attributable to competition for political power, and citizens continue to struggle with the legacy of the civil war that was fought along sectarian lines. Despite sectarian tensions caused by the competition for political power, the Lebanese continue to coexist.
Secularism—that is, the separation of religion from civic affairs and the state—has been a controversial concept in Islamic political thought, owing in part to historical factors and in part to the ambiguity of the concept itself. In the Muslim world, the notion has acquired strong negative connotations due to its association with removal of Islamic influences from the legal and political spheres under foreign colonial domination, as well as attempts to restrict public religious expression by some secularist nation states. Thus, secularism has often been perceived as a foreign ideology imposed by invaders and perpetuated by post-colonial ruling elites, and is frequently understood to be equivalent to irreligion or anti-religion.
Lebanese nationality law governs the acquisition, transmission and loss of Lebanese citizenship. Lebanese citizenship is the status of being a citizen of Lebanon and it can be obtained by birth or naturalization. Lebanese nationality is transmitted paternally. Therefore, a Lebanese man who holds Lebanese citizenship can automatically confer citizenship to his children and foreign wife. Under the current law, descendants of Lebanese emigrants can only receive citizenship from their father and women cannot pass on citizenship to their children or foreign spouses.
Irreligion is very uncommon in Lebanon, as Islam and Christianity are the predominant faiths. It is difficult to quantify the number of atheists or agnostics in Lebanon as they are not officially counted in the census of the country. The Lebanese Constitution guarantees the freedom of belief. There is a great stigma attached to being an atheist in Lebanon, thus many Lebanese atheists communicate via the internet. It is difficult not to have your religion stated at birth, although a baby made history in doing so in 2014.
Secular liberalism is a form of liberalism in which secularist principles and values, and sometimes non-religious ethics, are especially emphasised. It supports the separation of religion and state. Moreover, secular liberals are usually advocates of liberal democracy and the open society as models for organising stable and peaceful societies.
The Centre d'action laïque is the umbrella organisation of numerous secularist associations in French-speaking Belgium since 1969. It is integrated in the Central Secular Council, which also coordinates deMens.nu in Flanders.
Lebanese Laïque Pride, also Laïque Pride, Laic Pride, or Secular Pride, is a Lebanese secularist protest movement. The movement consists of various religious and social groups that are united in their call for secularism, women's rights, and media freedom in Lebanon. They advocate for "equality among all Lebanese citizens and the separation of religion and politics." The group is opposed to political sectarianism and confessionalism in Lebanon.
Gender Equality in Lebanon is the attempt that all men and women should receive equal treatment in all aspects of the society without discrimination on their sex. Equality in Lebanon has witnessed controlled attempts towards achieving gender equality. For example, Lebanon was a leading country in the middle east region and pioneered female rights to be enrolled in politics in 1953. Another important date in the Lebanese context to fight gender biases was 1996 where Lebanon endorsed the Convention on the Elimination all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). One of the main reasons for this gap in promoting gender equality is attributed to the over all education policies in the country where the present curricula is irrelevant to advocate for gender equality. Adding to this, some believe that cultural concerns play a big role in this educational tendency of overshadowing gender equality where still women's' roles in society are viewed with a lot of biases and discriminations perceptions.
Sectarianism in Lebanon refers to the formal and informal organization of Lebanese politics and society along religious lines. It has been formalized and legalized within state and non-state institutions and is inscribed in its constitution. Lebanon recognizes 18 different sects: 67.6% of the population is Muslim, 32.4% is Christian, the majority being Maronites Catholics and Greek Orthodox, while 4.52% is Druze. The foundations of sectarianism in Lebanon date back to the mid-19th century during Ottoman rule. It was subsequently reinforced with the creation of the Republic of Lebanon in 1920 and its 1926 constitution, and in the National Pact of 1943. In 1990, with the Taif Agreement, the constitution was revised but did not structurally change aspects relating to political sectarianism. The dynamic nature of sectarianism in Lebanon has prompted some historians and authors to refer to it as "the sectarian state par excellence" because it is a mixture of religious communities and their myriad sub-divisions, with a constitutional and political order to match.
