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Compared with most of their neighbors, Egypt and Iran share several distinguishing characteristics. Along with Turkey, they are the most populous countries in the Middle East. A large population means [...]

ON THE FACE OF IT, THE CULTURE WAR THAT HAS UNFOLDED OVER the last several decades has been a proxy for the conflict between the sacred and the secular. At [...]

THE PREMISE OF MANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING RELIGION AND secularity has been that the secular and the religious are two separate and distinct, and indeed for some, opposing spheres. In earlier [...]

THE REVEREND JERRY FALWELL, HIS HAIR IN A POMPADOUR, HIS suit tight at the seams, his speech and visage astir with moral outrage, first arrived on the national public stage [...]

THE ARTICLES IN THIS SECTION CONTINUE THE DISCUSSION OF how changeable and unstable any supposed boundary between the religious and the secular has been, looking particularly at this dissolving binary [...]

AS THE OTHER ESSAYS IN THIS VOLUME ATTEST, WE ARE LIVING IN an interesting time, one that is seeing a reappraisal of the separation we had often thoughtlessly assumed necessary [...]

THE CONCEPT OF THE DIALOGUE AMONG civilizations emerged in the post Cold War era in the context of Euro-Arab relations in 1992, not--as widely believed--as a response to Samuel P. [...]

Conventional models developed through the conceptual lenses of modernization theory dating back to the 1960s, are no longer applicable to Turkish politics; they fall short of grasping the changes that Turkish ideologies experienced in recent decades. In the face of Turkey's growing democratization and societal modernization, Turkish secularists have lost their status as agents of reform and gradually emerged as defenders of the status quo in the face of the rapid mobilization of Anatolian-based conservative society. However, no factor was more responsible for this transformation than the comprehensive external and internal structural changes that Turkey experienced in the post-Cold War era, leading to the emergence of a globalist conservative ideology in large parts of Anatolia. This paper examines the question of why those who are commonly associated in Western scholarly discourse with progress and modernity, have fallen behind the Muslim conservatives in pursuit of democratization and further integration of the country with the West. The paper argues that at the root of the present conflict lies the tension between two modernization routes: a bureaucratic top-down modernization that has allowed the allocation of privileges to the secularist/nationalist elites, and the grassroots socio-economic mobilization of conservative societal elements benefiting from international integration and globalization., In April and May of 2007, millions of Turks held anti-government demonstrations in the cities of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. Organized by secularist organizations and parties, these were perhaps the [...]

While the question of the relationship between Islam and democracy continues to attract significant attention from scholars and policymakers, African cases have been largely absent from these debates. This article argues that the experiences of sub-Saharan African Muslim societies may nevertheless have much to contribute to our understanding of democratic prospects in the Muslim world. Considering the experiences of three Francophone countries of Sahelian West Africa, it explores the ways in which the democratization experiments led by secular civil society activists in the early 1990s moved from the initial resistance of deeply religious Muslim majorities to an acceptance of democracy as the only legitimating bases of political systems. The article argues that this was possible due to the significant negotiation both within religious society and between religious groups and the secular elite on the actual content of democracy. These cases thus suggest a number of tentative but important lessons for our understanding of democratic possibilities in the Muslim world., In both scholarly and policy circles, the question of the relationship between Islam and democracy continues to sustain a small research industry and to generate a steady stream of publications, [...]

This essay examines the validity of the argument that the alleged theological lack of state-religion separation in Islam is the reason for authoritarianism in many Muslim-majority countries. The essay criticizes this argument by showing that a) secularism, in the sense of state-religion separation, is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for democracy; b) Islam is not an inherently and exceptionally political religion, and c) 20 out of 46 Muslim-majority states are secular. The essay point out that rather than analyzing the so-called essence of Islam as pro-democratic or anti-democratic, it may be more effective to explore the socio-political and economic conditions that have led to democracy or authoritarianism in Muslim-majority countries., According to Freedom House, out of 193 countries in the world, 119 are electoral democracies. Yet among 46 Muslim-majority countries, only nine are electoral democracies. In other words, the ratio [...]

BY THE TIME he left office, President Bush's faith-based initiative had become a kind of stand-in for his entire presidency. Whenever something went wrong on Bush's watch it was tarred [...]

This article examines political sectarianism as institutionalized in the consociational power sharing arrangements of Lebanon. The proposition advanced in this article challenges the common belief that the sectarian model of corporate consociationalism is adequate for plural societies undergoing democratic transition. It demonstrates that demographic, spatial, and regional power shifts render corporate sectarian power sharing consociationalism conducive to conflict and national fragmentation. As an alternative, it proposes 'integrative consociationalism' as a more responsive governing option that accommodates national and community-based political power sharing arrangements. National electoral strategies as well as administrative reforms are also suggested within the context of integrative consociationslism., Lebanese Governing System and the Crisis of Consociationalism Lebanon has come to satisfy the conditions under which most consociational systems have arisen. In 1943, the Lebanese National Covenant (Al-Methak Al-Watany) [...]

The Iranian people are in a state of suspense as they watch an increasingly oppressive militarist junta and a more democratic regime both struggling to be born. History shows that [...]

For most of us, the Old Testament names given to scores of American towns (Canaan, Bethlehem, Sharon, Lebanon, even Jerusalem) and the Hebrew phrases on the seals of Yale, Dartmouth, [...]

In discussing her own works of fiction, Toni Morrison explains that two of the major goals in her writing are to evoke the spoken word and to prompt readers to [...]

As Canadian citizens, and as Canadian citizens only, the Jewish voters will go to the polls ... They will cast their ballots for whomever they see fit. One thing alone [...]

Abstract This article explores the emergence of the religious Muslim women's movement in the 1990s in Turkey, and its relation with the broader women's movement, including the exclusion of religious [...]

Hans Jonas began his 1961 Ingersoll Lecture by acknowledging the "undeniable fact" "that the modern temper is uncongenial to the idea of immortality." (1) Jonas nonetheless concluded his lecture by [...]

Political funerals organized by Irish nationalists, who intended to use the heady mixture of sacred ceremony and political imperative to create a secular sainthood, bedeviled much of Cardinal Paul Cullen's [...]

The truth is that our Christian civilization is riddled through and through with dilemma. We believe in the brotherhood of man, but we do not want it in South Africa. [...]

In his first book, Stride Toward Freedom (1958), Martin Luther King, Jr. reflected on the future struggle of African Americans after their successful Montgomery bus boycott. Among the "forces of [...]

Archaeologists often portray Cahokia as the center of a chiefdom. A minority view is that Cahokia was the center of a state. These competing views are considered here, and an alternative model is presented, that Cahokia might be considered the center of a theater state. This model agrees with other models that Cahokia was an economic and political center, but also emphasizes Cahokia's role as a center of ritual. In the theater state model, the power of a state lies more in its ceremonies than in its armies. People came to Cahokia, helping to build it and feed it, not because they were coerced but because they wanted to be part of the drama. This view of Cahokia is not presented in order to replace all other models but, rather, to stimulate archaeologists to rethink what Cahokia might have been like. Geertz's theater state model suggests an alternative, non-Western view of the state that might be useful in reconsidering other archaeological complex societies as well. Frecuentemente los arqueologos pintan Cahokia como si fuera un centro de grandes caciques. Una pequena minoridad dice que era el pueblo central y el asiento del estado. Se consideran ambos puntos de vista, y tambien se presenta otro modelo, donde se consideraria Cahokia como el centro de un estado teatro. Este modelo como los otros modelos describen Cahokia como un centro economico y politico, pero de mas importancia, Cahokia era un centro ritual. En el modelo teatro estado, el poder del estado se concentra mas en las ceremonias queen los ejercitos. Vino la gente a Cahokia ayundando a construirla y alimentarla, no porque vinieron a fuerza sino porque querian ser parte del drama. No se presenta esta interpretacion de Cahokia para reemplazar todos los otros modelos, sino para estimular la interpretacion arqueologica de lo que podria haber sido Cahokia. El modelo teatro-estado de Geertz sugiere una vision alternativa y no occidental del estado, una vision que podria ser util al reevaluar otras complejas sociedades arqueologicas tambien., The contemporary significance of Cahokia is international in scale: UNESCO has deemed Cahokia a World Heritage Site because of its 'outstanding universal value.' The site is the largest archaeological site [...]

INTRODUCTIONThere is a general consensus in the scholarly literature that the neocolonial state in Africa has failed to address and meet the needs of the preponderant majority of the peoples [...]

C'est arrive au Quebec, le dimanche, 15 fevrier 200Z Cinq jeunes musulmanes ont ete forcees de quitter un tournoi de Tae Kwon Do parce que les officiels ont decide que [...]

A cursory glance at 2008 might suggest it was the year in which Mormons firmly cemented their loyalty to the GOP. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney was the most serious [...]

ACCORDING TO THE 2002 CENSUS, THE MUSLIM POPULATION OF RUSSIA was 14.5 million people. By 2008, the number of Muslim citizens exceeded 15 million, not taking into account legal or [...]

AKHMED DOESN'T LOCK HIS GATE AT NIGHT. HE doesn't lock his doors, and he leaves his windows open to let the curtains twitch in the breeze. The night sounds with [...]

Rip Van Winkle and the Separation (with a Primer of Twenty-six Parenthetical Notes on the Sacred) . . . apparently the lawless plunderers of the orchard and the cornfield, are, [...]

National monuments typically serve as aesthetic manifestations of dominant visions of history and collective identity, but they can also generate a contestation of the past they are intended to cement. Defending this two-pronged interpretive approach, this essay attends to the changing symbolic power of a unique national monument--the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. The study traces the cathedral's historic role in Russia's national self-definition during the last two centuries. The cathedral's construction under tsars, destruction under Stalin, and the postcommunist rebuilding accompanied and justified a particular version of national identity. The role of the cathedral as a magnet for competing versions of Russia's traumatic past is illustrated by the controversy over its rebuilding after the collapse of the Soviet Union., Following the call of Benedict Anderson to regard nations as 'imagined communities,' scholars across the humanities have sought to investigate the formation of public memory and national identity. (1) Although [...]

Preamble This declaration on peace has been developed in an ecumenical course of the Institute of Peace Church Theology of the University of Hamburg/Germany (winter-semester 2007/2008 and summer-semester 2008), in [...]

IN the past fifteen years, global evangelicalism has emerged as an important field of study. A key contributor to this study has been Paul Freston, who authored Evangelicals and Politics [...]

RECENT DOCUMENTS FROM church conferences, councils, and institutions throughout Venezuela (1) have regularly employed and suggested two basic moral criteria for interpreting the nation's changing political situation: (1) the practice [...]

The Note gathers contributions from four scholars around the world who highlight recent publications on ethical issues currently surrounding matters of church and state in their home countries. Included are representative contributions from Germany, Kenya, the United States, and Venezuela., CATHOLICS' ETHICAL INTERVENTIONS IN POLITICAL DEBATES: THE SITUATION IN GERMANY BISHOPS, MORAL THEOLOGIANS, AND LAY MOVEMENTS in Germany articulate Catholic and Christian ethical positions on a broad variety of matters [...]

Talk of participation is making a comeback in theology. Theologians are re-awakening to the heart of the mystery of Christianity, which Henri de Lubac calls the mystery 'of our participation, [...]

Thailand's 'southern border provinces' of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat--along with four districts of neighbouring Songkhla--are the site of fiery political violence characterised by daily killings. (1) The area was historically [...]

After the return of the Stuarts to the English throne in the person of Charles II, the producers of theatre in London treaded carefully around anything associated with the body [...]

THE IDEA BEHIND THIS ARTICLE came from a riddle. A 1907 guidebook to the Austro-Hungarian pilgrimage site of Mariazell carried the following enigmatic line: The traveler who, while visiting Mariazell, [...]

With almost prophetic accuracy, Naguib Azoury, a Maronitc Ottoman bureaucrat turned Arab patriot, wrote in 1905: 'Two important phenomena, of the same nature but opposed ... are emerging at this [...]

The 2008 New South Wales local government elections were held across the state on Saturday 13 September against the background of a meltdown of the state Labor government. There was [...]

Given the difficulty in determining certain details about religious life in medieval Russia using the available sources, conflicting accounts from foreign descriptions of Moscow need to be carefully scrutinized. A [...]

INTRODUCTIONThe ongoing crisis in Sudan is depicted by the Western media only in terms of the widespread human suffering that is taking place in the Darfur region of Western Sudan. [...]

This paper traces changing patterns of Islamism in Malaysia, focusing on developments during Dr Mahathir Mohamad's final administration (1999-2003) and since Abdullah Abroad Badawi assumed the premiership of the country on 31 October 2003. This period witnessed the making of a nascent Islamist civil society whose alliances have capriciously undergone realignments and reconfigurations in its endeavour to reach a stable equilibrium with non-Islamist forces. The emergence of a vibrant and burgeoning civil society in Malaysia has been characterized by lively vicissitudes in the relationship between its Islamist and non-Islamist elements. Having experienced a colourful and chequered relationship with the state and other Islamic movements since its official founding in 1971, the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (ABIM: Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia) has, since its leadership rejuvenation in 2005, attempted to reassert its dominant place as an influential and legitimate voice of the Malay-Muslim masses, but with mixed ramifications. Keywords: Islam, Islamism, Malaysia, ABIM, Yusri Mohamad, Abdullah Abroad Badawi., During the lengthy tenure of Dr Mahathir Mohamad's premiership (1981-2003), the formal political scene of Islamism (1) was dominated by the incessant rivalry between the ruling United Malays' National Organization [...]

In the spring of 1923 the Ku Klux Klan launched a series of protests against Charlie Chaplin's The Pilgrim and the Pola Negri film, Bella Donna. This article considers how and why the Klan opposed these films. Drawing on extensive research in Klan newspapers, the article suggests that the Klan sought to promote and define itself through its discourses with the film industry and repositions the Klan as a hugely influential and overlooked social reform group, pressurising the industry during the 1920s., A vulgar little ape of the screen at present is busily pocketing dollars as a reward for caricaturing the Protestant ministry. In ministerial garb the guttersnipe comedian drinks booze, waves [...]

IF we were to trust A Mirror for Magistrates, Henry VI 'him selfe was cause of the destruccion of many noble princes, being of all other most vnfortunate him selfe' [...]

IN AN INTERVIEW, DR. ABDUL AZIZ RANTISI, THE POLITICAL HEAD OF the Hamas movement in Palestine, objected to my use of the term 'suicide bombers' to describe his young colleagues [...]

THE ADVENT OF THE SUICIDE BOMBER AS A GLOBAL PHENOMENON during the past decade and a half has vastly increased our interest in but only marginally improved our understanding of [...]

Does postcolonial theory that cogently presents postcolonial perspectives on globalization have relevance for theology? The article argues that postcolonial theory's emphasis on eschewing identity-based strategies for liberation is an urgent necessity in a globalized and militarized world. Postcolonial theorists seek justice and care for the poorest women and children of the Global South, arguing that these concerns should be part of theological and religious agenda., TERTULLIAN'S QUESTION POSED after his conversion sometime ca. 197 C.E., 'What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? What have heretics to do with Christians?' identified the tension he felt [...]

'Morality is a subject that interests us above all others,' wrote David Hume in A Treatise of Human Nature (1740). (1) While such a concern with morality has long been [...]

As the nineteenth century steamed into the twentieth, a sense of anxiety swelled among many philosophers, theologians, and ordinary people about the extraordinary progress of science. In the fields of [...]