Secularism and State Neutrality: The 2015 Muslim Protest of Discrimination in the Public Schools in Ghana

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 65-104
Author(s):  
M.H.A. Bolaji
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Historical Documents ◽  
Christian Missions ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
State Neutrality ◽  
The Status

AbstractPluralism is a discernible feature of many modern states. However, among the variants of pluralism, religious pluralism appears to be the most intractable in many modern states because faiths and values underpin the conflicts that are associated with it. As one of the legacies of the Enlightenment, secularism is a normative prescription for managing religious pluralism. Nevertheless, while many African states profess to be secular, more often than not there are no concrete strategies to objectify the secular arrangement thereby provoking questions on the status quo. Such was the case with the 2015 Muslims’ protest of discrimination in the public basic and second cycles schools in Ghana. Through primary (interviews and archival and historical documents) and secondary data, this paper examines the protest in light of the secularist arrangement. It first reviews the contours of the secularist’s lenses. Second, it historicizes Muslim-Christian relations in Ghana. It also analyzes the checkered partnership between the state and the Christian missions in the provision of education. Moreover, it evaluates the debates that ensued and the ambivalent communiqué that the National Peace Council (NPC) issued. The paper concludes with a note that underscores the dynamics and tensions that characterize many plural societies in their attempt to objectify the secularist principle.

State contestations in constructions of 1Malaysia

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-65
Author(s):  
Mary Varghese ◽  
Kamila Ghazali
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Public ◽  
Malaysian Population ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This article seeks to contribute to the existing body of knowledge about the relationship between political discourse and national identity. 1Malaysia, introduced in 2009 by Malaysia’s then newly appointed 6th Prime Minister Najib Razak, was greeted with expectation and concern by various segments of the Malaysian population. For some, it signalled a new inclusiveness that was to change the discourse on belonging. For others, it raised concerns about changes to the status quo of ethnic issues. Given the varying responses of society to the concept of 1Malaysia, an examination of different texts through the critical paradigm of CDA provide useful insights into how the public sphere has attempted to construct this notion. Therefore, this paper critically examines the Prime Minister’s early speeches as well as relevant chapters of the socioeconomic agenda, the 10th Malaysia Plan, to identify the referential and predicational strategies employed in characterising 1Malaysia. The findings suggest a notion of unity that appears to address varying issues.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Statements in the U. S. Creative Sector: Progress, or More Bullshit?

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-46
Author(s):  
Antonio C. Cuyler
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Arts Organizations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cultural Organizations ◽  
The Status ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Equity And Inclusion

This article represents a snapshot and analysis of U. S. service arts organizations’ DEI statements and activities in 2018. At that time, many primarily White-serving U. S. cultural organizations responded defensively to accusations of elitism and a harmful rigged funding system that maintained the status quo by awarding most cultural funding to these organizations while undermining the health and vitality of cultural organizations by and for historically oppressed communities (Sidford, 2011). Furthermore, Helicon Collaborative (2017) found that even with a host of cultural equity, “diversity” projects (Tseng 2016), and public-facing DEI statements, little had changed within six years. Therefore, this study uses directed and summative content analysis to investigate the research question “what do cultural equity and diversity statements communicate about cultural organizations’ positions on DEI?” This study also uses Frankfurt’s (2005) essay On Bullshit and Laing’s (2016) two-prong definition of accountability as a theoretical framework to examine if and how cultural organizations hold themselves accountable for achieving DEI in the creative sector. Lastly, readers should keep in mind that the public murder of Geor-ge Floyd in 2020 has hastened all of the service arts organizations’ access, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI) work examined in this study.

scholarly journals Bella Abzug, queer rights, and disrupting the status quo

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor G Gates ◽  
Margery C Saunders
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The United States ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Field Analysis ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Status

Workers who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ)-identified have always been a part of the workplace in the United States, yet there has been a lack of awareness about how to advocate for the needs of these people. This lack of awareness was challenged by Congresswoman Bella Abzug. Abzug’s campaign for creating an equal working environment for sexual minorities initiated gradual changes in the public discourse concerning workplace and other broad equality measures for these communities. To frame these gradual transformations within a historical context, we use Lewin’s force field analysis framework to examine the change efforts of Abzug. Abzug had beginning success in thawing the status quo yet her visions for equality for LGBTQ people have yet to be realized. Using Abzug’s social action as an example, this article concludes that allies must continue to challenge societal oppression, power, and privilege and to demand civil rights protections for LGBTQ individuals.

scholarly journals Conspicuous Invisibility: Votive Offerings from Female Dedicators on the Athenian Acropolis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Stacey Wellington
Keyword(s):  
Working Women ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Financial Resources ◽  
Significant Extent ◽  
The Public ◽  
Patriarchal Ideology ◽  
Essential Components ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Votive Offerings

<p>The mechanics of Athenian society in many ways empowered citizen women as essential components of their community. This reality, being at odds with Athens’ pervasive patriarchal ideology, was obscured by men anxious to affirm the status quo, but also by women who sought to represent themselves as ‘ideal’ examples of their sex. Using the votive offerings dedicated by women to Athena on the Athenian Acropolis in the Archaic and Classical periods as a basis, this thesis explores such tensions between the implicit value of Athenian women, which prompted them to engage meaningfully with their wider community, and the ideological edict for their invisibility. This discussion is based primarily on two points: firstly, that the naming of a male family member in votive inscriptions denotes female citizen status, thus articulating citizen women’s independent value and prestige within the polis; and secondly that the ubiquity of working women among the dedicators, and value of the offerings themselves, reveals women as controlling financial resources to a more significant extent than other sources would have us believe. In both cases, the actual value and authority of the female dedicators is concealed as the women aimed for a perception of conspicuous invisibility to legitimise their engagement with the public sphere.</p>

scholarly journals Conflict Between Hizb Ut-Tahrir And Islamic Civil Society In Indonesia:A Countermovement Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-191
Author(s):  
Hasbi Aswar ◽  
Danial Bin Mohd. Yusof ◽  
Rohana Binti Abdul Hamid
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Political Narratives ◽  
The Status ◽  
Nahdlatul Ulama ◽  
Movement Study

In a social movement study, countermovement emerges when certain movement is considered to bring threat to the status quo or the current political and social condition. Social movement seeks for changing the existing situation while the countermovement pursues to keep it. As a result, the conflict between two becomes inevitable, where both will compete to win over the other. The existence of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Indonesia (HTI) for years is responded by some Islamic groups especially Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and its allies, as threat to the Indonesian life due to the idea brought by HTI. It becomes the root of conflict between HTI and other Islamic groups in Indonesia. This article aims to explain the conflict between HTI and other Islamic groups by elaborating the effort of the Islamic groups to counter the HTI narratives and mobilization by using countermovement approach in social movement studies. This article is a case study research and using mainly secondary data to analyze the issue. This article found that Nahdlatul Ulama as the main countermovement played significant role to counter Hizb ut-Tahrir`s religious and political narratives as well as its political mobilization.

scholarly journals The Status of Geography in the Public Schools

1916 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 236-238
Author(s):  
P. C. Tonning
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Status

Public entrepreneurship and the economics of reform

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAN SCHNELLENBACH
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Entrepreneurship ◽  
The Status ◽  
Schumpeterian Approach

Abstract:Public entrepreneurship is commonly understood as the outcome of the activities of a Schumpeterian political innovator. However, empirical research suggests that changes to a more efficient economic policy, even if it is known and technically easy to implement, are usually delayed. This is difficult to reconcile with Schumpeterian notions of public entrepreneurship. In this paper, it is argued that the attempt to transfer a Schumpeterian approach to the public sector is fundamentally flawed. Institutional checks and balances that characterize most modern liberal democracies make the strategy of bold leadership an unlikely choice for an incumbent. If change occurs, it occurs normally as a response to the fact that the status quo has become untenable. From a normative point of view, it is argued that if public entrepreneurship nevertheless occurs, it will often be associated with unwanted consequences. A dismantling of formal institutional checks and balances is therefore not reasonable.

Neutrality of the State and Regulation of Religious Symbols in Schools in Quebec and France

2009 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Koussens
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Cultural Integration ◽  
Supreme Court Of Canada ◽  
Religious Symbols ◽  
Immigrant Populations ◽  
State Neutrality ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Difference

The difference in attitudes towards the wearing of religious symbols in schools in France and Canada is symptomatic of the respective legal and political definitions of the official neutrality of the school institution and thus of way in which laicism is used to regulate religious pluralism and the “socio-cultural” integration of immigrant populations. In what ways is state neutrality put into practice, in Quebec and in France, as regards the judicial and political treatment of the wearing of religious symbols in public schools? The author proposes to examine the implementation of the liberal principle of neutrality by the French law dated 15 March 2004 on the wearing of religious symbols in public schools and by the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada of 2 March 2006 to allow a young Sikh to wear his ritual kirpan at school.

Called to Become a Blessing

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 397-411
Author(s):  
Martin Prudký
Keyword(s):  
Public Domain ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The Status ◽  
Book Of Genesis ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
European Civilization

The religious traditions and texts of ancient Israel have shaped European civilization and culture in a fundamental way. One of the key motifs that the Hebrew Bible has contributed to the formation of the spiritual traditions of this culture is the conception that faith entails a ‘stepping out’ of the status quo on the new journey to which God calls a person. An archetypal story in this respect is the narrative concerning the call of Abram (Gen. 12:1–3). This paper presents the basic motifs of Abram’s call in the context of the book of Genesis and sketches their impact on subsequent religious traditions. It pursues the question of the relationship of vocation and mission (of ‘stepping out’ and ‘charting a course’), which are two fundamental aspects of Abraham’s role as ‘the father of the faith’. In addition, this paper reflects on these motifs’ potential to impact the public domain.

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