Week 9: Religion and Democracy

Retrospective Extrapolation

• The assumption that current levels of democratization (or lack thereof) reflect the disposition of particular religious ideologies

• Europe is democratic now => Catholicism must always have been compatible with democracy

• Muslim countries are undemocratic now => Islam must always have been incompatible with democracy

• Kalyvas

Retrospective Extrapolation

• Assumes that policy is the exclusive, automatic and natural derivative of ideas

• Religious ideas fixed

• Religions monolithic entities

Kalyvas

Religious Mobilization

• Definitions

– the use of religious symbols and rituals

– Religious movements: political actors that rely on religious mobilization

Kalyvas

Four essential components of Religious mobilization

1. “Antisystem” critique

• Against secular and liberal institutions that support relegation of religion to the private sphere

– Catholic movements in the 1860’s -1870’s were strongly opposed to liberal democracy

– Belgium 1870, Catholic movement adopted a strong anti liberal position

Kalyvas

Syllabus Errorum (1864)

• Vatican condemned 80 theses including:

– Philosophy free from religion (supernatural)

– Separation of religion and state

– Pantheism, naturalism, absolute rationalism

– liberalism

2. Reconstruction of existing religious entities

• Reconstruct existing religious entities by blending religious, social, economic and political

– 19th century Catholic movements, as the antidote to liberalization and secularization

– Islamism, based on the primary role of social and political action

• Example; Fatah (as well as Hamas) derived legitimacy through action not Islamic interpretation

– BJP, transcends Hinduism through action Kalyvas

3. Mass mobilization based on selective incentives and concomitant use of economic and social issues

• Reliance on social and political messages

• State is the main focus of criticism

• Religious parties provide incentives

– Muslim Brotherhood hospitals and food programs in Egypt

– Catholic organizations intended as a “counter society”

– BJP student organizations

Kalyvas

4. Cross Appeal

• Appeal to disparate segments of society

– BJP builds a broad coalition of castes

– Catholic mobilization becomes a federation a various organizations

Kalyvas

Paths out of Unsecular Politics

• Willingness to moderate

– Constraint through alliances with secular parties

– Moderation in the face of military or elite subversion

• Ability to moderate

– It is the ability to moderate rather than willingness that matters

» Ascension to power brings moderation

Kalyvas

Islam and Democracy

• 9 electoral democracies out of 46 in 2011:

• Indonesia

• Turkey

• Albania

• Mongolia

• Bosnia-Herzegovina

• Senegal

• Mali

• Mauritius

• Comoros

• Indonesia, Mali, Senegal, Mauritius and Comoros had higher freedoms scores than Turkey

ELECTORAL DEMOCRACIES IN MUSLIM MAJORITY COUNTRIES (2010):

TURKEY (Partly Free)

MONGOLIA (Free) INDONESIA (Free)

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (Partly Free) ALBANIA (Partly Free) SENEGAL (Partly Free)

MAURITIUS (Free) MALI (Free)

COMOROS (Partly Free) http://www.freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/inline_images/ElectoralDemocraciesFIW2011.pdf

New baby on the block? A New Electoral Democracy in 2011!

TUNISIA

(Also moved from Not Free to Partly Free)

http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world-2012/full-report-essay

• Huntington: non-western societies cannot embrace democratic values and institutions because these are culture-specific to the western world.

What makes the West “western” and unique?

• The classical legacy

• Western Christianity

• European languages

• Separation of spiritual and temporal authority

• Rule of law

Social pluralism and civil society

• Huntington: “what is distinctive about the West, as Karl Deutsch noted, ‘is the rise and persistence of diverse autonomous groups not based on blood relationship and marriage.”

– Monastries, guilds etc.

Representative bodies

• “estates, parliaments, other institutions” representing the interests of the aristocracy, clergy, merchants, and other groups…evolved into the institutions of modern democracy.”

Form vs. substance

• Are these really unique?

– Historically

– categorically

• Huntington does not distinguish between the form, justification and substance of institutions.

• Muslim countries can democratize by either producing the same institutions or by producing indigenous institutions fulfilling the same functions!

• Secular civil law (e.g. Turkish civil law) vs.

• Mecelle (1878, late-Ottoman)

• citizen associations vs.

• vaqfs

• Parliament vs. Shura

• Secular-democratic state state vs. civil state

• Tariq Ramadan:

It was not long before several Islamist movements replaced "Islamic" with "civil" in describing themselves.. all the while avoiding terms like secularisation, secularism.. as such concepts continue to carry a negative connotation in the broad Arab and Muslim conscience (Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan's remarks about secularism during his 13 September 2011 visit to Egypt were badly received by the Muslim Brotherhood and by Islamists in general).

• Western (universal?) forms:

– Advantages: have already been tried; best practices

– Disadvantages: legitimacy

• Indigenous forms

- Advantages: legitimacy, historical basis

- Disadvantages: takes time to develop, constrained by religious tradition

• Why do “western” institutions seen as western, rather than universal?

• Filali-Ansary:

– Islam should be the religion that can most easily accommodate secularization

– “secularization has been taking place in Muslim societies for decades.”

Tenacious misunderstanding

• According to Al-Ansary, why do many Muslims oppose secularization and Islam seems to be hostile to secularization and modernity?

Saad Eddin İbrahim

• Two-thirds of Muslims live under elected governments in countries like Turkey, Indonesia, Senegal, and İndia.

• The remaining one-third is concentrated in Arab Middle East.

• The first democratization wave in Arab world in nineteenth century was aborted by colonial powers such as France and Britain.

• Israeli-Palestinian conflict undermined the other one.

Empirical Disproof

• Both Catholicism and Islam have been used to back a variety of regimes

• Ideology is not a static variable, interpretations chance over

time

– See Khomeini revising Shiite

– avoidance of religious leaders

in government

Muslims and Democracy encounters with the modernizing west

• Jamal-Eddin Al-Afghani

– Refuted the notion that religion is responsible for backwardness

– Equates secularists with seventh

century opponents of

the Prophet

– Secularism becomes equated

with atheism

Ansary

Misconception

• Western imperialism becomes conflated with Christian proselytism and secularism

• Widespread hostility toward secularism and modernity becomes endemic to Islamic societies

• However, there is noting about Islam that makes it inherently antithetical to these ideas

Ansary

Islam versus Islamdom

• Islam as a religion – See the Koran and Sunna

• Islam as a society – See the Golden Age of Islam

• “a social and political order built in the norms adopted from Islamic sources but specifically adapted to the conditions of the time.”

• See Christianity and Christendom

• Obeying non-legitimate rulers is better than Fitna, or anarchy

Ansary

Transformation of Society • Secularization has been taking place in Muslim

Societies in the face of strong opposition

• Society built on religion no longer provides the basis for social and political order

• disenchantment with ‘progress’ Ansary

Attitudes towards Democracy

• Even fundamentalists accept democratization

– As long as it is Sharia compliant

• Growing acceptance and adoption

• Mohammed Abed Jabri, democracy is the only acceptable principle of political legitimacy

Ansary

Conditions for Real Democracy in Muslim Societies

• Updating of religious conceptions

– General evolution of religious attitudes

• Rule of Law

– A clear modern concept of rule of law where individuals have a voice

• Economic Growth

– Continuous progress replacing messianic hope

Ansary

The Synergy of Religion, secularism and Human Rights (An-Na’im)

• Religion- a system of beliefs practices, institutions and relationships within a community that distinguish itself from other communities

• Secularism- “a principle of public policy, applied variously in distinct contexts, for organizing the relationship between religion and state”

• Human rights- universally due to all human beings, “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights…”*universal declaration of human rights

Subjectivity of Human Rights

• Enlightenment roots, distinctly European origin

• UDHR, in 1948 European powers still maintained colonial interests

• Self regulation and exemption is paradoxical An Na’im

• Exclusivity of Religion – Religions are premised on a monopoly on truth,

“one true faith”

– Universal human rights treats all ideologies as equivalent

– Religions divide

• Secularism is multidimensional, reflecting elements of history, political and social landscape

An Na’im

The Secular Quest for Human Rights

• Can a secular message effect change in religious groups?

– Religious groups claim that violations are codified in religious texts

– Secularism attempts to address the rationale

– Secular rebuttals meet with religious resistance

• Conclusion: secularism is necessary but insufficient

– Change comes from within

An Na’im

Fundamental Relationships

• Human rights need religion to validate their moral foundation and mobilize religious adherents

• Religion needs human rights to protect the dignity and rights of religious adherents

• Human rights need secularism to provide political stability and peace among believers and non beleivers

An Na’im

Fundamental Relationships cont.

• Secular governments need human rights for normative guidance

• Secularism needs religion to provide a widely accepted source of moral guidance for the political community

• Religion needs secularism to mediate relations between different communities

An Na’im

Case Studies: Women’s Rights in Egypt

• Rift between secular and religious branches

– Should Sharia be the main source of legislation

• Some activists view Islam as inherently patriarchal

• Invocation of human rights and secularism allows individuals to leave Islam

– Religion must not force an agenda on individuals

Sudan

• Ambiguities about the relationship between Islam and the state retard growth

– Civil war

– Exaggerated influence of the National Islamic Front

– Non negotiable Islamic State in a diverse country creates conflict

– Opposition to a “divinely legitimized” Sharia government becomes tantamount to apostacy

Q1: How does An-Na’im argue that human rights are universal?

Q2: However, in what sense does he argue that international definitions of human rights need to be reformed/revised?

Q3: According to An-Na’im, what kind of a secularism can religion agree to? What are the reasons religion may need/endorse secularism?

• Q4: Why does secularism need religion?

Paradox of secularism:

Secularism needs/claims to be neutral. But, this creates a paradox because it cannot tell religious people “why” they should accept secularism.

Therefore:

• Secularism alone is insufficient to realise its own aims (political stability, political autonomy and peaceful coexistence).

• Secularism should be justified within religious tradition.

Interdependence of Religion, Secularism and Human Rights

1-Human rights need religion to validate their moral foundation and to mobilize religious adherents (the vast majority, globally) in support of universal rights.

2. Religion needs human rights to protect the dignity and rights of religious adherents within any political system, but human rights also ensure freedom of belief and practice within each religion itself and thus ensure the evolution and continuing relevance of each religion to its own membership.

3. Human rights need secularism to provide the political stability and peace among communities of believers and nonbelievers that are necessary for the protection of those rights.

4. Secular governments need human rights for normative guidance in the daily protection of people against the abuse of state power.

5. Secularism needs religion to provide a widely accepted source of moral guidance for the political community, as well as to help satisfy and discipline the nonpolitical needs of believers within that community.

6. Religion needs secularism to mediate relations between different communities (whether religious or antireligious or nonreligious) that share the same political space.