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Abstract
Scholars have offered different accounts in the debates over religion-state relations in the Muslim world. Central to their differing views are diverging premises on the degree to which religion-state relations in Muslim societies are dictated or determined by certain ‘essential’ cultural, religious or even civilizational characteristics. Another main root of conflicting analyses is different assumptions on the extent to which the discourse of religion-state relations should be confined to their distinctively secular-liberal character. While some discuss religion-state relations within strictly secular-liberal terms, others choose to go beyond these particular narratives. This paper revisits the debate on religion-state relations in the Muslim world in light of these two main roots of contention. The chapter begins with a critical examination of the cultural essentialist approach and its limited analytical value in the discussion on religion-state relations in the Muslim world. It then examines the dominant secular-liberal narratives of state-religion and their problematic projection within the context of Muslim societies. Finally, it offers an overview of the internal debate within the Muslim world over the issue of religion-state relations, focusing more specifically on the extent to which secular liberal discourses are contested or critically embraced.
Keywords: Religion-state Relations, Secular-liberal Narratives, Muslim Societies
Article Details
References
- Al-Azmeh, Aziz. Islams and Modernities , London: Verso, 1993.
- Altman, Andre Critical Legal Studies: Liberal Critique , Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990.
- An-Na’im, Abdullahi A. “Re-affirming Secularism for Islamic Societies,†New Perspectives Quarterly, 3 ,2003.
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- ____________________. “Shari’a and Positive Legislation: Is an Islamic State Possible or Viable?†in Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law 1998/1999, vol. 5, ed. Eugene Cotran ,The Hague: Kluwer, 2000.
- ____________________. “Islam and Secularism,†in Linell E. Cady and Elizabeth Shakman Hurd (eds.), Comparative Secularism in A Global Age , Palgrave: Mcmillan, 2013.
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- Moosa, Ebrahim. “The Debt and Burdens of Critical Islam,†in Omid Safi (ed.), Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender and Pluralism, Oxford: Oneworld Publication, 2003.
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- __________. Secularism Confronts Islam, New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
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References
Al-Azmeh, Aziz. Islams and Modernities , London: Verso, 1993.
Altman, Andre Critical Legal Studies: Liberal Critique , Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990.
An-Na’im, Abdullahi A. “Re-affirming Secularism for Islamic Societies,†New Perspectives Quarterly, 3 ,2003.
____________________. “The Politics of Religion and the Morality of Globalization,†in Mark Juergensmeyer (ed), Religion in Global Civil Society , Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
____________________. “The Interdependence of Religion, Secularism and Human Rights, Common Knowledge, Vol. 11, No. 1 ,Duke University Press, 2005.
____________________. “Shari’a and Positive Legislation: Is an Islamic State Possible or Viable?†in Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law 1998/1999, vol. 5, ed. Eugene Cotran ,The Hague: Kluwer, 2000.
____________________. “Islam and Secularism,†in Linell E. Cady and Elizabeth Shakman Hurd (eds.), Comparative Secularism in A Global Age , Palgrave: Mcmillan, 2013.
Anderson, John. “Does God Matter, and If So Whose God?: Religion and Democratization,†Democratization, 11: 4 (2004)
Arjoman, Said Amir. “Religious Human Rights and the Principle of Legal Pluralism in the Middle East,†in Johan D. Var der Vyver and John Witte Jr., (eds.), Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Legal Perspective , The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1997.
Durham Jr, W. Cole. “Perspectives on Religious Liberty: A Comparative Framework,†in Johan D. Var der Vyver and John Witte Jr., (eds), Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Legal Perspective , The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1997.
Ferjani, Mohamed-Cherif. “Islam and politics: The terms of the debate,†History and Anthropology, 16:1, 2009
Halliday, Fred. Islam and the Myth of Confrontation , London: Tauris, 1996.
Helmstadter, Richard (ed.). Freedom and Religion in Nineteenth Century, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997.
Huntington, Samuel. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order , New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.
Jung, Dietrich. ‘Islam and Politics: A Fixed Relationship?,’ Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies, 16,1 , 2007.
Kaviraj, Sudipta. “In Search of Civil Society,†in Sudipta Kaviraj and Sunil Khilnani (eds.) Civil Society: History and Possibilities , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Kuru, Ahmed T. Secularism and State Policies toward Religion: The United States, France and Turkey , New York, Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Lapidus, Ira. “The Separation of State and Religion in the Development of Early Islamic Society,†International Journal of Middle East, 6, 4 , 1975.
__________. “State and Religion in Islamic Societies,†Past and Present 151 , 1996.
Lewis, Bernard. The Political Language of Islam, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
March, Andrew F. “Are Secularism and Neutrality Attractive to Religious Minorities? Islamic Discussions of Western Secularism in the “Jurisprudence of Muslim Minorities†(Fiqh Al-Aqalliyyat) Discourse, Cardozo Law Review, vol. 30, No. 6. 2009.
Meyerson, Denise. ‘Why religion belongs in the private sphere, not the public square’ in Peter Cane, Carolyn Evans and Zoe Robinson (eds.), Law and Religion in Theoretical and Historical Contexts , New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Mohr, Richard and Nadirsyah Hosen. “Introduction, De capo: law and religion from the top down,†in Nadirsyah Hosen and Richard Mohr (eds.), Law and Religion in Public Life, London and New York: Routledge, 2011.
Moosa, Ebrahim. “The Debt and Burdens of Critical Islam,†in Omid Safi (ed.), Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender and Pluralism, Oxford: Oneworld Publication, 2003.
Rawls, John. Political Liberalism, New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
Roy, Olivier. Globalised Islam: The Search for a New Ummah, London: Hurst, 2004.
__________. Secularism Confronts Islam, New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
Soroush, Abdolkarim. “The Changeable and the Unchangeable,†in Kari Vogt, Lena Larsen and Christian Moe (eds.), New Directions in Islamic Thought: Exploring Reform and Muslim Tradition , London, New York: I.B Tauris, 2009.
Stahnke, E. and R. C. Blitt. “The Religion-State Relationship and the Right to Freedom of Religion or Belief: A Comparative Textual Analysis of the Constitutions of Predominantly Muslim Countries,†Georgetown Journal of International Law, 36 (4), 2005
Stepan, Alfred. “Religion, Democracy, and the “Twin Tolerationsâ€,†Journal of Democracy, Vol. 11, No. 4 October 2000.
Tayob, Abdulkader. Religion in Modern Islamic Discourse , New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.
Temperman, Jeroen. “The Neutral State: Optional or Necessary? A Triangular Analysis of Religion-state relationship, Democratisation and Human Rights Compliance,†Religion and Human Rights, 1, 2006.