scholarly journals Lebanon and Iraq: Two Distinct Demonstrations of Confessionalism’s Failure as a Means to Manage Ethnic and Religious Pluralism

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nour Mohsen
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Institutional Power

The Iraqi and Lebanese political systems stemmed from each country’s distinctive mosaic of sub-national identities but have been deemed corrupt and incompetent, prompting ongoing protests and calls for unity in both contexts. However, this dissatisfaction is unsurprising given the challenging task of translating the ethnic, linguistic, and religious diversity that characterizes each population into an overarching national identity. The Lebanese and Iraqi political systems have attempted to manage ethnic and religious pluralism through confessionalism, or a “consociational government which distributes political and institutional power proportionally among religious sub-communities.” This paper argues that Lebanon and Iraq are two specific examples of confessionalism, demonstrating its failure to manage ethnic and religious pluralism, which seems to inevitably beget sectarianism—a discriminatory structure in which each group advances its privileges at the expense of others. Nevertheless, confessional systems are challenging to transform, namely because they institutionalize different ethnic or religious groups’ identities instead of promoting a unified, national identity. 

Defining Nation and Religious Minorities in Russia and Turkey: A Comparative Analysis

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laman Tasch
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Orthodox Christianity ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Sunni Islam

AbstractMany countries today face the challenges posed by their ethnic and religious diversity. This article comparatively analyzes how defining nation in Russia and Turkey affects what groups constitute religious minorities and what their prospects of integration into the Russian and Turkish societies are. It conceptualizes religious minorities as those religious groups that are excluded from the prevailing and institutionalized definitions of nation. This article studies what role religion, comprising Orthodox Christianity, and Sunni Islam, respectively, has played historically and until nowadays in Russia and Turkey in the definitions of their national identities and what kind of religious minorities each of these definitions created. It argues that a position of religious minorities depends not only on the informal association of national identity of the majority with certain religion, but also on the institutionalized support for the dominant religion by the ruling political forces.

Public Policy and Religious Diversity

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 186-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emerson Giumbelli
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Public Hospitals ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Porto Alegre ◽  
Guiding Principle ◽  
Political Dimensions ◽  
Rule Out

Recently in Brazil, diversity has become a guiding principle in formulating public policy, and “interreligious spaces” have been established in public hospitals for the use of religious groups of various kinds. An examination of the use of these spaces in two major public hospitals in Porto Alegre makes it clear that religious diversity has fundamental political dimensions involving the representation and recognition of social groups and that a commitment to religious pluralism does not rule out other hegemonies. Recentemente no Brasil, a diversidade tornou-se um princípio norteador para a formulação de políticas públicas. Consequentemente, “espaços interreligiosos” veem sendo estabelecidos em hospitais públicos para serem utilizados por diversos grupos religiosos. Uma análise dessa utilização, em dois importantes hospitais na cidade de Porto Alegre, demonstra com clareza que a diversidade religiosa apresenta dimensões políticas fundamentais que abarcam a representação e o reconhecimento de grupos sociais. Ademais, atesta que o comprometimento com o pluralismo religioso não exclui outras hegemonias.

The study of religious diversity in the Czech lands—diversity in academic studies of religions

Human Affairs ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dušan Lužný
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Czech Society ◽  
Czech Lands

AbstractThis article attempts to summarize some of the experiences and methodological insights gained from research on non-traditional religious groups that the author has conducted over the last twenty years, primarily in Czech society. The starting point for these studies is respect for the principle that it is not possible to approach the study of religious pluralism and diversity from a single predetermined conceptual framework-religious diversity requires diverse approaches. However, within the diversity approach there exist some common principles such as respect for the religious beliefs of respondents and the elimination of personal stereotypes and ethnocentrism.

scholarly journals Effects of neighbourhood religious diversity and religious and national identity on neighbourhood trust

2021 ◽  
pp. 136843022199009
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Bennett ◽  
Meenakshi Parameshwaran ◽  
Katharina Schmid ◽  
Miguel Ramos ◽  
Miles Hewstone
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Statistical Estimates ◽  
Religious Identification ◽  
Local Areas ◽  
Multiple Groups ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship

This paper examines the relationship between religious diversity, religious and national identity, and neighbourhood trust. Using data from 6,089 individuals in England matched to census-based statistical estimates for 300 local areas, we find that religious diversity is negatively associated with neighbourhood trust. Further analyses tested indirect relationships between religious diversity and neighbourhood trust to examine whether higher levels of religious diversity are associated with a stronger sense of religious identity, and whether a stronger sense of religious identity is associated with lower levels of neighbourhood trust. We simultaneously tested whether higher levels of religious diversity are associated with a weaker sense of national identity, and whether a weaker sense of national identity is associated with lower neighbourhood trust. Multigroup analyses were conducted to assess patterns across religious groups. Results indicate that, for Christians, religious diversity is associated with a stronger subordinate religious identification, which is in turn associated with lower neighbourhood trust. There were no associations between religious diversity, national identification, and neighbourhood trust. For the other religious groups, no significant associations were found between our variables of interest. We discuss the relevance and implication of increasing religious diversity in societies for the multiple groups involved.

Multiculturalism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nasar Meer
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Race Relations ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Prominent Feature ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
The Core ◽  
National Question ◽  
Multicultural Citizenship ◽  
Future Status

The purpose of this chapter is to locate the discussion about Muslims in Scotland in relation to questions of national identity and multicultural citizenship. While the former has certainly been a prominent feature of public and policy debate, the latter has largely been overshadowed by constitutional questions raised by devolution and the referenda on independence. This means that, while we have undoubtedly progressed since MacEwen (1980) characterised the treatment of ‘race-relations’ in Scotland as a matter either of ‘ignorance or apathy’, the issue of where ethnic, racial and religious minorities rest in the contemporary landscape remains unsettled. One of the core arguments of this chapter is that these issues are all interrelated, and that the present and future status of Muslims in Scotland is tied up with wider debates about the ‘national question’. Hitherto, however, study of national identity in Scotland has often (though not always) been discussed in relation to the national identities of England, Wales and Britain as a whole.

PERSOALAN KEHIDUPAN KONTEMPORER: MENGGAGAS KAJIAN SACHEDINA TENTANG THEOLOGI PLURALISME

EMPIRISMA ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Limas Dodi
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Common View ◽  
The Public ◽  
The People ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Religious Differences

According to Abdulaziz Sachedina, the main argument of religious pluralism in the Qur’an based on the relationship between private belief (personal) and public projection of Islam in society. By regarding to private faith, the Qur’an being noninterventionist (for example, all forms of human authority should not be disturb the inner beliefs of individuals). While the public projection of faith, the Qur’an attitude based on the principle of coexistence. There is the willingness of the dominant race provide the freedom for people of other faiths with their own rules. Rules could shape how to run their affairs and to live side by side with the Muslims. Thus, based on the principle that the people of Indonesia are Muslim majority, it should be a mirror of a societie’s recognizion, respects and execution of religious pluralism. Abdul Aziz Sachedina called for Muslims to rediscover the moral concerns of public Islam in peace. The call for peace seemed to indicate that the existence of increasingly weakened in the religious sense of the Muslims and hence need to be reaffi rmed. Sachedina also like to emphasize that the position of peace in Islam is parallel with a variety of other doctrines, such as: prayer, fasting, pilgrimage and so on. Sachedina also tried to show the argument that the common view among religious groups is only one religion and traditions of other false and worthless. “Antipluralist” argument comes amid the reality of human religious differences. Keywords: Theology, Pluralism, Abdulaziz Sachedina

scholarly journals Addressing Religious Diversity through Children’s Literature: An “English as a Foreign Language” Classroom in Israel

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rawia Hayik
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Critical Literacy ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Practitioner Inquiry ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Reader Responses ◽  
Region I ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Efl Students

Conflicts between different religious groups occasionally arise in my Christian and Muslim Israeli-Arab EFL students’ school and area. In an attempt to increase students’ knowledge of and respect for other faiths in the region, I conducted practitioner inquiry research in my religiously diverse Middle-Eastern classroom. Grounded in critical literacy, I used a book set of religion-based literature alongside critical literacy engagements to effect some change in students’ tolerance towards other faiths. This article describes my journey of exploring students’ reader responses to religion-based texts and issues.

scholarly journals ‘A Most Select Gathering’. Mexican National Pilgrimages to Rome during the Papacy of Leo XIII

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 475
Author(s):  
Francisco Javier Ramón Solans
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Global Dimension ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Holy See

The objective of this article is to analyse Mexican national pilgrimages to Rome that took place during the pontificate of Leo XIII (1878–1903). These pilgrimages occurred in the context of a global Catholic mobilisation in support of the papacy, during the so-called Roman Question. This paper’s analysis of these pilgrimages draws from historiography about national pilgrimages, as well as studies on Catholic mobilisation in support of the pope in the second half of the nineteenth century. It is fundamentally based on primary sources of an official nature, such as reports and other printed documents produced on the occasion of the pilgrimage. The study’s primary conclusion is that national pilgrimages to Rome had a polysemic character since they brought together various religious and national identities. The pilgrimages contributed simultaneously to reinforcing the link between Catholicism and Mexican national identity and the global dimension of Catholicism and allegiance to the Holy See.

scholarly journals The Role of Religious Fundamentalism in the Intersection of National and Religious Identities

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susilo Wibisono ◽  
Winnifred Louis ◽  
Jolanda Jetten
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Religious Fundamentalism ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Religious Identification ◽  
National Identification ◽  
The Way

Indonesia has seen recent expansions of fundamentalist movements mobilising members in support a change to the current constitution. Against this background, two studies were conducted. In Study 1, we explored the intersection of religious and national identity among Indonesian Muslims quantitatively, and in Study 2, we qualitatively examined religious and national identification among members of moderate and fundamentalist religious organisations. Specifically, Study 1 (N= 178) assessed whether the association of religious and national identity was moderated by religious fundamentalism. Results showed that strength of religious identification was positively associated with strength of national identification for both those high and low in fundamentalism. Using structured interviews and focus group discussions, Study 2 (N =35) examined the way that self-alignment with religious and national groups develops among activists of religious movements in Indonesia. We found that while more fundamentalist activists attached greater importance to their religious identity than to any other identity (e.g., national and ethnic), more moderate activists represented their religious and national identities as more integrated and compatible. We conclude that for Indonesian Muslims higher in religious fundamentalism, religious and national identities appear to be less integrated and this is consequential for the way in which collective agendas are pursued.

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