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Political Secularism and Religious Difference in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa

Participation
Policy
Jeffrey Haynes
London Metropolitan University
Erin Wilson
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

Building: Exchange Building, Room: Room C3

Wednesday 09:00 - 17:00 BST (26/04/2017)

Thursday 09:00 - 17:00 BST (27/04/2017)

Friday 09:00 - 12:30 BST (28/04/2017)

Saturday 09:00 - 17:00 BST (29/04/2017)

Sunday 09:00 - 13:00 BST (30/04/2017)

It was long assumed that one of the main outcomes of a secular political order in plural societies was to encourage both emancipation and political equality for religious minorities. These assumptions are now strongly challenged by recent events in two neighbouring regions. First, in recent years, coinciding with but not necessarily caused by the post-2010 'Arab Spring', violence against Christians and other religious minorities has grown in many countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Some scholars have sought to explain this as either a continuation or re-emergence of deep-rooted primordial conflicts or to Islam's supposed 'inherent intolerance'. In the MENA, political secularism was imposed from outside by Western colonial rule. Over the last few decades of independence mainly unelected rulers have sought to impose and perpetuate their rule via processes of political secularisation whose ultimate aim was to divide and rule the various religious groups in their polities. Second, recent and current events in Europe point to growing polarisation in many countries between the non-Muslim majority and Muslim minorities; and, often, growing intolerance and declining ability to live together seems to be the outcome in several European countries. In Europe, the overall result is that while religious equality, including between Muslims and non-Muslims, is a cornerstone of the region's democratic foundations and constitutional arrangements, equality between religious groups is rapidly being whittled away. The purpose of the workshop is to compare and contrast the impact of political secular regimes in the countries of both the MENA and Europe. The aim is to understand the impact of political secularism in both regions, as a key component of inter-religious and cultural discord and contention.

Title Details
Re-Thinking Religious Change in Europe View Paper Details
Same but Different? Secularism, Citizenship and State in Israel and Turkey View Paper Details
Understanding the (Varying) Impact of Secularism and Religiosity on Tolerance and Trust among the Publics of 15 MENA Countries View Paper Details
Islamism, Secularism and Support for Democracy after the Arab Spring View Paper Details
Classifying 'Secular' and 'Religious' Non-State Actors in Contexts that Complexify the Religious-Secular Divide View Paper Details
A New Politics of Religion? How Political Parties Shape Religious Policy in 30 European Democracies View Paper Details
From Exclusion to Inclusion? Islamic Organizations in Welfare Delivery in Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK View Paper Details
Influence or Negotiation? Religion, Pluralism and Public Policies in Italy and Turkey View Paper Details
Political Secularism and Religious Difference in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa View Paper Details
Why Not Secular Liberalism? A Deeper Reflection upon the Incompatibilities of Secular Liberalism and Islamic Governance at the Ontological and Epistemological Levels View Paper Details
Independence or Neutrality? State Control and Independence of Mosques in Post-revolutionary Tunisia View Paper Details
Do Islamists Embrace Political Secularism? Evidence from Tunisia View Paper Details
Papal Geopolitics: Imagining the Religious, Imagining the Secular View Paper Details
Sacralising Nation and Market: Migrations of the Secular and the Religious in an Age of Post-truth Politics View Paper Details
Shared Religion but still a Marginalised Other: Middle Eastern Christian Migrants Encounters with Political Secularism in the UK View Paper Details
Explaining the Role of Morality and Violence in the Process of Defining Political Communities View Paper Details
Secularism in Turkey – What Is It All About Today? View Paper Details
Defying the Twin Tolerations? The Curious Case of Church Asylum in Germany View Paper Details