Governing Diversity: Reflections on the Doctrine and Tradition of Religious Accommodation in Islam

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. Muhammad Mushtaq ◽  
Muhammad Riaz Mahmood
Keyword(s):  
Power Sharing ◽  
Primary Concern ◽  
Peaceful Coexistence ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Religious Accommodation ◽  
Pluralistic Approach ◽  
Inclusive Governance ◽  
Multicultural Policies ◽  
Islamic Values

The problématique of governing diversity has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention but literature has largely overlooked the challenges appertaining to growing religious diversity in many places. The contemporary power sharing models and multicultural policies which are of a secular nature fall short of the expectations to foster peaceful coexistence in multi-religious societies. The primary concern of this paper is to manifest how religion can help us to lessen faith based violence. It is argued that religious traditions may offer valuable insights to design more inclusive governance. In this backdrop, the current paper evaluates the Islamic values of religious accommodation to gauge how helpful they are for designing inclusive policies in religiously diverse societies. The analysis illustrates that Islamic doctrine contemplates the politics of accommodation and forbearance. The pluralistic approach of Islam offered religious autonomy to non-Muslims in the state of Madinah. The ‘millet system’ established by the Ottoman Empire is widely admired for granting non-territorial autonomy in the matters related to religion, culture, and personal laws to non-Muslims. This display of an Islamic pluralistic approach at different junctures of Muslim history attests the capacity of the Islamic values of accommodation to nurture peaceful coexistence in modern societies. However, it requires a more unbiased and rigorous analysis to convince the global audience in this regard.

Hospitality in and beyond Religions and Politics

Derrida Today ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-237
Author(s):  
Michael Barnes Norton
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Peaceful Coexistence ◽  
Religious Traditions

This paper examines Derrida's treatment of the quasi-transcendental structure of hospitality, particularly as it pertains to religious traditions, conceptions of human rights, and modern secularism. It begins by looking to the account Derrida presents in ‘Hostipitality’, focusing especially on his treatment of the work of Louis Massignon. It then proceeds to an exploration of Kant's concept of cosmopolitanism and some of its contemporary descendants before returning to Derrida's treatment of hospitality by way of his critique of this Kantian heritage. The paper argues both that religious traditions exhibit (though, perhaps, often not explicitly) the kind of structures of openness to difference to which Derrida's notion of hospitality refers, and that modern Western conceptions of secularism too easily preclude understanding and fostering those aspects of religious traditions which can contribute to more peaceful coexistence in pluralistic environments.

Prophetic Redemption

2018 ◽  
pp. 43-67
Author(s):  
Edward Orozco Flores
Keyword(s):  
Social Integration ◽  
Community Organizing ◽  
Civic Participation ◽  
Gang Members ◽  
Formerly Incarcerated ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
The Social

This chapter builds upon a gap in the field of criminology by investigating how CRS and LA Voice, as umbrella faith-based community organizing groups, shaped the social integration of former gang members and the formerly incarcerated. CRS and LA Voice’s contrasting religious traditions shaped how they facilitated members’ participation in community organizing. LA Voice leaders drew from Catholic theologies and practices and a relationship-based model of community organizing to foster members’ civic participation. This approach is termed pastoral prophetic redemption. By contrast, CRS leaders drew from the historical Black Protestant church’s theologies and practices and an issue-based model of community organizing to foster members’ civic participation. This approach is termed insurgent prophetic redemption.

Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 207-234
Author(s):  
Gregorio Bettiza
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Politics ◽  
First Century ◽  
Policy Changes ◽  
Policy Regime ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
American Experience ◽  
Faith Based

The conclusion has two main objectives. The first is to show how the International Religious Freedom, Faith-Based Foreign Aid, Muslim and Islamic Interventions, and Religious Engagement regimes form a broader American foreign policy regime complex on religion. The second objective is to reflect on the book’s wider implications for the study of religion in international relations and highlight areas for further research. This includes assessing the strength of the book’s theoretical framework in light of ongoing developments under the Trump administration; understanding better the changes occurring to the religious traditions and actors that America draws from and intervenes in around the world; investigating further how the American experience with the operationalization of religion in foreign policy relates and compares to similar policy changes taking place elsewhere; and reflecting more broadly on the implications for international order of the growing systematic attempt by the United States to manage and mobilize religion in twenty-first-century world politics.

Dreambooks

2020 ◽  
pp. 50-73
Author(s):  
Bronwen Neil
Keyword(s):  
Primary Concern ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Special Training ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
The Many ◽  
Good And Evil ◽  
Early Islamic

This chapter on dreambooks from our three main religious traditions concentrates on the differences between reported male and female dreaming, and the different interpretative strategies that were applied in these sources to men’s and women’s dreams. It starts by considering where dreambooks or dream key manuals began in the Near Eastern and Graeco-Roman traditions. The importance of generic context is again paramount. Dreambooks were written as manuals for interpreters but eventually came to be used by laypersons without any special training. The problem of discernment between good and evil dreams, and their causes, was not the primary concern of dreambook writers or those who used them, nor did they worry about how dreams related to a future that was governed by providence. They were simply concerned with what a specific dream meant for the present and future: was it good or bad? Dream interpreters attempted to lend scientific credibility to the profession by laying out in detail the many factors that could influence the interpretation of a dream. One of these variables was the gender of the dreamer, as seen in a survey of dream symbols from the Oneirocriticon of Artemidorus, the Book of Blessings, Byzantine dreambooks, and the early Islamic tradition.

"Jesus Saved an Ex-Con"

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Orozco Flores
Keyword(s):  
Social Integration ◽  
Community Organizing ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Formerly Incarcerated ◽  
Community Renewal ◽  
National Network ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
The Social ◽  
Formerly Incarcerated Persons

This book presents two cases of faith-based community organizing for and among the formerly incarcerated. It examines how the Community Renewal Society, a protestant-founded group, and LA Voice, an affiliate of the Catholic-Jesuit-founded PICO National Network, foster faith-based community organizing for the formerly incarcerated. It conceptualizes the expanding boundaries of democratic inclusion—in order to facilitate the social integration of the formerly incarcerated—as prophetic redemption. It draws from participant observation and semistructured interviews to examine how the Community Renewal Society offered support for the Fighting to Overcome Records and Create Equality (FORCE) project, while LA Voice offered support for the Homeboy Industries–affiliated Homeboys Local Organizing Committee (LOC), both as forms of prophetic redemption. Both FORCE and the Homeboys LOC were led by formerly incarcerated persons, and drew from their parent organizations’ respective religious traditions and community organizing strategies. At the same time, FORCE and Homeboys LOC members drew from displays learned in recovery to participate in community organizing. The result was that prophetic redemption led to an empowering form of social integration, “returning citizenship.”

scholarly journals Aktualizacja potencjału religii w ochronie ekosystemów leśnych

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-27
Author(s):  
Ryszard F. Sadowski
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Forest Conservation ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Environmentally Friendly ◽  
Environmental Conservation ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
The Way

Declared by the United Nations as the International Year of the Forest, 2011 demonstrated the signi#cance of forest ecosystems to all humans and the entire Earth. Religions had already become important allies in preventing damage to forests. Different religious traditions offer various proposals for forest conservation and afforestation. Since 1970 and especially after the jubilee year of 2000, people of faith established many ecological organizations to engage in environmental conservation because of their religious beliefs. All major religious traditions have a lot to offer. This article examines the way organized religions and faith-based ecological organizations are engaged in many environmental projects concerning forest ecosystems. It looks at the ecological activity of faith-based organizations such as the Chipko Movement, Appiko movement, Swadhyaya community, and the Ecological Movement of St. Francis of Assisi. The article shows that the actualization of religious potential in protecting forests is accomplished through active prevention of deforestation and climate change, afforestation, and the implementation of environmentally friendly technology.  

Diplomacy and Religion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Global Era ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Religious Actors

Religion has long been seen as an obstacle to diplomacy, especially in disputes and conflicts that seem to be related to or motivated by religion. The very nature of religion—its concerns for dogma, truth, and certainty— would seem to be contrary to the nature of successful diplomacy, with its emphasis on empathy, dialogue, understanding, negotiation, and compromise. However, religion and diplomacy have become more interrelated since the end of the twentieth century. Globalization and the changing nature of conflict have exposed the limits of conventional diplomacy in resolving these new conflicts in a global era, and this has opened up new opportunities for religious actors involved in diplomacy. A so-called “faith-based diplomacy” has emerged, which promotes dialogue within and between religious traditions. Particularly in the Islamic world, with a new generation of theologians and politicians, it is recognized that there is a key role for religious leaders and faith-based diplomacy in the Middle East. Faith-based diplomacy can be distinguished from the traditional models of peacemaking and conflict resolution by its holistic approach to the sociopolitical healing of a conflict that has taken place. In other words, the objective of faith-based diplomacy is not only conflict resolution but also the restoration of the political order that has suffered from war and injustice, and the reconciliation of individuals and social groups.

What Is Black Organizing?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent W. Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Community Organizing ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Racial Groups ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Theological Critique ◽  
Scholarly Attention

There has been much scholarly attention paid to faith-based community organizing. Such organizing efforts often understand themselves as “broad-based,” drawing support from a range of religious communities, racial groups, and neighborhoods. In doing so, these organizing efforts often elide the specificity of racial and religious difference. This chapter draws on feminist critiques of community organizing traditions to develop a black theological critique—and the beginnings of an alternative approach to community organizing that draws on the longstanding organizing traditions already present in black communities. By bringing together secular and religious traditions of black organizing, and by coupling black organizing with black theological reflection, this chapter shows how black community organizing can move beyond pragmatic appeals that sideline racial and religious identity.

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