Debating secularism: A liberal cosmopolitan perspective

In the classical notion of secularism, privatization of religion is an essential component of freedom and equality between citizens, so that rights are granted to individuals rather than to communities. The currently dominant objections to this notion in the literature are the multiculturalist thesis, primarily expounded by Tariq Modood, and the critique of secularism through the "genealogical" method, associated with Talal Asad and his followers. This article critically assesses these objections and defends the classical notion of secularism from a liberal cosmopolitan perspective. The argument that the classical notion perfectly addresses the questions of freedom of conscience and diversity of belief is further supported by reference to an ignored source, Thomas More's Utopia.

Athéisme et sécularisme au Kenya : les tribulations des Atheists In Kenya (AIK)

As affirmed by the 2010 constitution, the Republic of Kenya is a secular country that promises both freedom of faith and freedom from religion. In practice, however, the realm of religion in Kenya is highly normative. The 2010s have seen the rise of a group seeking to challenge this status quo: Atheists in Kenya (AIK). The group met with fierce resistance, and its attempt to register as a legal society ended before the country's High Court. AIK's activism turned it into a social movement that demands a reexamination of the close ties between religion and the State. It is thus an important participant in a wide debate on secularism in Kenya. In addition, AIK may be read as a testimony to the country's present stage of democratization, which allows - if sometimes reluctantly - for new modes of social action and for the expression of claims that were formerly kept in check.

The role of religious diversity in social progress

This article brings together the notions of religious diversity and social progress and argues, against the sceptics, that the former can - and indeed must - contribute positively to the latter. To do this, it builds on to a major initiative in which the author had co-responsibility for the material on religion. This was the International Panel on Social Progress (IPSP) which assessed state-of-the-art knowledge that bears on social progress across a wide range of economic, political and cultural questions. The work of the IPSP as a whole is briefly outlined; the article then looks at the chapter on religion within this, foregrounding the material on religious diversity. This material is placed in a wider discussion of multiculturalism and secularism, in which links are made with the work of Tariq Modood and the Bristol Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship. A short postscript introduces a more topical issue. It considers the role of religious communities (more especially religious minorities) as societies confront the ravages of COVID-19.

Secularism as a Project of Free and Equal Citizenship: Reflections on the Turkish Case

This article undertakes a defense of secularism, much maligned by postmodernists and multiculturalists. First, secularism as a normative political principle is conceptually distinguished from the discredited sociological theory of secularization and, second, it is treated as a project of free and equal citizenship. The conceptual discussion is complemented by an assessment of the Turkish case, falsely presented in the literature as a radical form of secularism. The article aims to show that a religious political movement, opposed to secularism, tends to be authoritarian and intolerant of diversity.

Liberal-secular power and the traps of muslim integration in Western Europe

Throughout the last decades, integration programmes in Western Europe have centrally revolved around debates on Muslim populations and the institutionalization of Islam. The concept of integration has become a master paradigm with which to structure plurality of immigration societies across Western Europe. Critically reflecting this inflation, this article argues that the integration of Muslims is animated by a contingent liberal-secular matrix through which the sovereign state, in close connection with civil society, is enabled to decide what counts as proper and improper religion. Integration directed toward Muslims as a "religious minority" is therefore indicative of the very problems that it purports to resolve. In a genealogical vein, the article begins by suggesting that integration is a liberal "recursion" of earlier projects of minority management such as assimilation and conditional recognition within emerging nation-states. It argues that the epistemological ground which animated the assimilatory forces of the modern nation-state has been intimately bound by an imperial knowledge order which classifies and hierarchizes people along a race-religion nexus. The analysis continues by dwelling on contemporary examples of state organized dialog with Muslims, and more specifically the establishment of Islamic Theology Chairs at state universities. Through these examples the article shows that the institutionalization of Islam in Europe reconfigures a pattern which conditionally embraces religious difference, while at the same time continuing hierarchical rankings and by transforming it to make it fit for religion's legitimate place in public life. Finally, the article suggests that the somatic aspirations prevalent in assimilation projects and imperial race-religion constellations are both inscribed and concealed in the frequent invocation of Muslims to reveal their loyalty to the liberal-secular contract by bracketing their religious sensibilities for the sake of secular reason.

Religion at Work in Bioethics and Biopolicy: Christian Bioethicists, Secular Language, Suspicious Orthodoxy

The proper role, if any, for religion-based arguments is a live and sometimes heated issue within the field of bioethics. The issue attracts heat primarily because bioethical analyses influence the outcomes of controversial court cases and help shape legislation in sensitive biopolicy areas. A problem for religious bioethicists who seek to influence biopolicy is that there is now widespread academic and public acceptance, at least within liberal democracies, that the state should not base its policies on any particular religion's metaphysical claims or esoteric moral system. In response, bioethicists motivated by religious concerns have adopted two identifiable strategies. Sometimes they rely on slippery-slope arguments that, sometimes at least, have empirically testable premises. A more questionable response is the manipulation and misuse of secular-sounding moral language, such as references to "human dignity," and the plights of groups of people labeled "vulnerable."

Cracking and moderating secularist assumptions

The four articles that make up this symposium on Tariq Modood's recent collection, Essays on Secularism and Multiculturalism (2019), are based on a public conversation and research colloquium held at Utrecht University on 18 February 2020. In the first article, Modood introduces the conversation with a statement of his thinking over two decades on the subjects of secularism and multiculturalism. This is followed by responses by Pooyan Tamimi Arab and Ernst van den Hemel and, in the fourth and final article, Modood has the last word.

Religion is Secularised Tradition: Jewish and Muslim Circumcisions in Germany

This article demonstrates that the legal reasoning dominant in modern states secularises traditions by converting them into 'religions'. Using a case study on Germany's recent regulation of male circumcision, we illustrate that religions have (at least) three dimensions: religiosity (private belief, individual right and autonomous choice); religious law (a divinely ordained legal code); and religious groups (public threat). When states restrict traditions within these three dimensions, they construct 'religions' within a secularisation triangle. Our theoretical model of a secularisation triangle illuminates that, in many Western states, there is a three-way relationship between a post-Christian state and both its Jewish and Muslim minorities. Our two theoretical proposals-the secularisation triangle and the trilateral relationship-contribute to a re-examination of religious freedom from the perspective of minority traditions and minority communities.

Impact of the Charter of Quebec Values on psychological well-being of francophone university students

This paper discusses results from a pilot study conducted in the spring of 2014 among young adults living in Montreal. The main objective of this study was to assess the relation between perception of the Charter of Quebec Values, ¹ self-identification, perception of intercommunity relations, perceived discrimination, and psychological well-being in young students enrolled in undergraduate or graduate programs of a francophone university in Montreal. A total of 441 students (30.5% male, 69.5% female) took part in a web survey designed by the research team. The data analyses and results suggest that the debate around the Charter of Quebec values was associated with a shift from a predominantly positive perception of intercommunity relations to a predominantly negative one, particularly among women, immigrants, and those who self-identified as cultural or religious minorities. In addition, more than 30% of participants reported having experienced some form of ethnic or religious discrimination since the Charter was released (personally or as a witness). This was particularly the case among immigrants, as well as those who self-identified as bicultural or from cultural or religious minority groups. This study's results thus highlight the exacerbation of intercommunity tensions linked to the public debate around identity and intercommunity relations in Quebec.

Pastoral care of mental illness and the accommodation of African Christian beliefs and practices by UK clergy

Faith-based organisations, especially those related to specific ethnic or migrant groups, are increasingly viewed by secular Western government agencies as potential collaborators in community health and welfare programmes. Although clergy are often called upon to provide mental health pastoral care, their response to such problems remains relatively unexamined. This paper examines how clergy working in multiethnic settings do not always have the answers that people want, or perhaps need, to problems of misfortune and suffering. In the UK these barriers can be attributed, generally, to a lack of training on mental health problems and minimal collaboration with health services. The current paper attempts to highlight the dilemmas of the established churches' involvement in mental health care in the context of diversity. We explore the inability of established churches to accommodate African and other spiritual beliefs and practices related to the etiology and treatment of mental health problems.

[Secularism in hospital, between rights and obligations]

Public hospitals are subject to specific regulations with regard to secularism, which must respect the nursing staff as well as the patients. The relevant legislation attempts to find a balance between freedom of belief and religious expression on the one hand, and the smooth running of the public hospital service on the other.

[Returning or turning to religious figures in social work?]

The social workers tell to be more and more often exposed to the religious reference table of the people they help and confronted to internal conflicts in the teams when it is a question of delimiting the borders of the religious freedom of expression in a laic frame. Besides they observe processes of affiliations-reaffiliations which pass by unchecked uses of religious practices, in particular when it concerns muslims people, which tends to become among young people of popular districts, and more marginally among the middle-class teenagers, in search of a reassuring orthopraxie, the support of a militant action for a project of new value identities disqualified or assigned, at risk of falling over to the communitarianism or the radicalization.

Cosmic Experiments: Remaking Materialism and Daoist Ethic "Outside of the Establishment"

In this article, I discuss recent experiments in 'classical' (gudian) Chinese medicine. As the marketization and privatization of health care deepens and enters uncharted territories in China, a cohort of young practitioners and entrepreneurs have begun their quest for the 'primordial spirit' of traditional Chinese medicine by setting up their own businesses where they engage in clinical, pedagogical, and entrepreneurial practices outside of state-run institutions. I argue that these explorations in classical Chinese medicine, which focus on classical texts and Daoist analytics, do not aim to restore spirituality to the scientized and secularized theory of traditional Chinese medicine. Nor are they symptomatic of withdrawals from the modern world. Rather, these 'cosmic experiments' need to be understood in relation to dialectical and historical materialisms as modes of knowledge production and political alliance. In challenging the status of materialist theory and the process of theorization in traditional Chinese medicine and postsocialist life more broadly speaking, advocates of classical Chinese medicine imagine nondialectical materialisms as immanent ways of thinking, doing, and being in the world.

[Nursing care at home and secularism]

The question of secularism, long-time confined to schools and the relationships between the Church and State, is today being raised in the field of public health. Nurses are directly affected and are integrating this dimension of secularism into their care practices. A private practice nurse describes the effect these changes are having on her practice in patients' homes.

[Spirituality--the French concept of secularity--Judaism and care]

Judaism is based on faith in one God who gives us life. The believer must follow a certain number of laws and rules to draw closer to God. Healthcare professionals are sometimes at a loss as to how to follow them and need assistance in implementing them in order to meet Jewish patients' needs in the best way they can.

[The principle of spirituality in healthcare establishments, the role of healthcare supervisors]

Healthcare teams are sometimes questioned by patients and their loved ones concerning respect for their desires or performing rites, whether religious or part of their own personal beliefs. While caregivers are convinced that it is part of their job to meet these needs, this is sometimes contrary to the requirements of neutrality and laïcité--the French concept of secularity--on healthcare premises. Nonetheless, each can contribute to the evolution of the general reflections undertaken by a team or an organization.

[The Observatory of Spirituality, an organization serving citizens]

Since 2007, the Observatoire de la Laïcité has been helping the French Government in its actions aimed at ensuring compliance with the principle of "laïcité"--the French concept of secularity--in the country. Implementation of its missions enable it to measure how the concept of "laïcité" is understood and applied today.

[Religion and spirituality, definitions and challenges]

Understanding religious teachings and the religious dimension in our societies is not made any easier with a discourse that is often lacking in rigor for dealing with this reality. Some basic notions need to be clarified to better define the religious and the spiritual.

[The impact of religious coping on adaptation strategy among the sick]

The influence of religious practice on sick people's adaptation processes has been demonstrated in many studies. It is important for the clinical reasoning implemented by caregivers to integrate this aspect in a context defined by the principle of "laïcité" as understood in France.

[Construction of the French concept of spirituality]

"Laïcité"--the French concept of secularity--holds a central position in contemporary debates. The subject here is a reminder of how this concept was introduced in France, how it has guided the secularization process in institutions and on what levels it is now called into question.

[Spirituality in hospitals]

Laïcité, the French concept of secularity that was introduced in France at the start of the 20th century, ensures freedom of religion for patients and requires neutrality from public service establishments and agents. Some users' faith-based demands require caregivers to turn to French law on these questions to be able to take the right actions in care situations.

[Islam and caring]

There are more and more followers of the Muslim religion in France. All caregivers need to understand the fundamental principles that their Muslim patients hold sacred in the area of health and care. For Muslims, it is of utmost importance to observe the fundamentals of Islam and the values of brotherhood, tolerance, fairness and truth are essential.