Exploring Concepts of Liberty in Islam
Secularism as an ideology, whether it is the laicized version in France or the firm restrictions on Islam in politics in Turkey, or whether it's even the kind you find in America, is not a model or attitude that is comfortable to many Muslims. That is because it is seen, rightly so in some instances, not as being neutral on religion, but rather as actually hostile to it.
In some parts of the Muslim world, secularism is often seen as an attack on religion and religious peo ple. For example, the Communists in Afghanistan and Ba'athists in Iraq violently repressed religious leaders. Because of this disparity in experience and understanding, I find it is rarely helpful to dwell on secularism when we are discussing liberty and free dom in the Muslim world. I do not think we should put ourselves in the position—as some American liberals do—of arguing that our "classic liberal ideas of tolerance and separation of church and state" are the same things as radical forms of secularism that based on a hostility to religion per se.
Rather, I think we should be arguing that reli gious freedom is necessary for all people to practice their religions authentically. And that includes not just Christians, but Muslims as well.
American religious conservatives may have some thing to offer Muslims in this regard. American con servative Christians and Jews are not comfortable with radical forms of secularism either—whether in the form of attacking religion in the public square, or in cultural matters where religion is ridiculed or ren dered irrelevant. American conservatives are perfect ly happy with not establishing a state religion, but they also want respect for religion and the practice of religion. It may be that something useful could come from a dialogue of American conservative Christians and Jews and Muslims in this regard. This kind of bridge-building dialogue already is taking place among theologians, clerics, and lay people, but to date it has not really expanded to the core concepts of liberty as we are speaking of them here today.
For Americans at least, as we do this, we remem ber that our Founding Fathers did not seek to divorce religion from public life. Rather, they saw an important role for religion—one that informed the political sphere and governing structures that were separate from religious organizations. They came to this understanding after studying history and gov ernment systems, and through their experiences— in some cases bitter experiences in the history of England where the tangling of religion in politics had produced not only violent conflict, but also resulted in religious repression and the inability for some people to practice their religion freely.
Posts
