tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/religious-tolerance-39036/articlesReligious tolerance – The Conversation2023-12-19T13:14:20Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2197832023-12-19T13:14:20Z2023-12-19T13:14:20ZFinding objective ways to talk about religion in the classroom is tough − but the cost of not doing so is clear<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565878/original/file-20231214-19-f6dr6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C2117%2C1406&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Concerns about what is or isn't legal can hinder objective lessons about religious studies in class.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/students-draw-their-attention-to-the-unseen-royalty-free-image/1430112785?phrase=classroom+u.s.+discussion&searchscope=image%2Cfilm&adppopup=true">SDI Productions/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite the holiday season’s calls for joy and peace, <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/02/how-should-faith-communities-halt-the-rise-in-religious-violence/">religious strife</a> continues in many places. While the United States has a great deal of litigation and controversy over religion’s place in public life, it has largely avoided violence. Yet our society often seems unprepared to talk constructively about this contentious topic, especially in schools. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.interfaithamerica.org/research/ideals/">the IDEALS survey</a> of college students on 122 U.S. campuses, conducted by researchers at North Carolina State University, Ohio State University and the nonprofit Interfaith America, just 32% of students said they had developed the skills “to interact with people of diverse beliefs.” Although almost three-quarters of students spent time learning about people of different races, ethnicities or countries, less than half of them reported learning about various religions. Most students received “C” grades or below on the survey’s religious literacy quiz.</p>
<p><a href="https://aarweb.org/common/Uploaded%20files/Publications%20and%20News/Guides%20and%20Best%20Practices/AARK-12CurriculumGuidelinesPDF.pdf">Objective education</a> about the world’s religions has <a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Religious-Literacy-Imperative-Report.pdf">the potential to foster tolerance and understanding</a>, and various research groups provide guidelines for <a href="https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/what-we-do/our-approach/core-principles">religious literacy education</a>. Yet <a href="https://time.com/4261597/teaching-religion/">the study of religion</a> may be hindered by hesitation about what is and isn’t legal <a href="https://time.com/4261597/teaching-religion/">in public classrooms</a> – a topic I write about often as <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/education/eda/russo_charles.php">a professor of law and education</a>, with a particular interest in these fields’ relationships to religion. </p>
<p>Other countries also face challenges in deciding what kind of religion-related instruction can or can’t be legally taught in public schools, and each deals with the question in different ways.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565885/original/file-20231214-29-9k3dgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A peaceful scene inside a sunlit classroom with colorful decorations in the windows." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565885/original/file-20231214-29-9k3dgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565885/original/file-20231214-29-9k3dgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565885/original/file-20231214-29-9k3dgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565885/original/file-20231214-29-9k3dgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565885/original/file-20231214-29-9k3dgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565885/original/file-20231214-29-9k3dgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565885/original/file-20231214-29-9k3dgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Students attend their last class before mid-term holidays begin in April 2023 in Ankara, Turkey.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/students-of-a-primary-school-attend-their-last-class-before-news-photo/1251815172?adppopup=true">Ercin Erturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>US legal landscape</h2>
<p>Though there have been many Supreme Court cases over issues of church and state in public schools, most deal with the First Amendment freedoms of students, staff and parents rather than what’s officially taught in class.</p>
<p>There has been relatively little litigation about what teachers can and can’t instruct students in matters that touch on religion. Two of the exceptions involved lessons about evolution: <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/393/97">one decided in 1968</a>, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/482/578">the other in 1987</a>. In both cases, the Supreme Court upheld educators’ right to teach evolution, rather than the biblical accounts of creation, to explain human origins. </p>
<p>Federal trial courts in <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/933/582/1741862/">Mississippi</a> and <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp2/1/1426/2569866/">Florida</a> banned courses in the 1990s that included instruction about the New Testament, ruling that the way they were taught crossed a line and violated the <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/">establishment clause</a> of the U.S. Constitution. However, this was because the courts determined instruction was being given from a Christian perspective. The court in Florida did allow teaching about the Hebrew scriptures, because the focus was on the texts’ cultural and literary significance.</p>
<p>In the Supreme Court’s closest response to the question of teaching about religion in public schools, 1963’s <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/374/203">School District of Abington Township v. Schempp</a>, eight of the nine justices agreed that state-sponsored prayer and Bible reading in public schools violates the establishment clause. Yet the court recognized that “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/374/203">the Bible is worthy of study</a> for its literary and historic qualities. Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistently with the First Amendment.”</p>
<p>The court’s decision “plainly does not foreclose teaching about the Holy Scriptures or about the differences between religious sects in classes in literature or history,” Justice William Brennan <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/374/203">added in a concurrence</a>. Thus, consistent with religious literacy programs’ approach, public schools can teach about religion, but not in ways that seek to instill systems of belief.</p>
<h2>International perspectives</h2>
<p>To place the issue in perspective, it is worth highlighting other countries’ approaches to teaching about religion in the classroom – <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Law-Education-and-the-Place-of-Religion-in-Public-Schools-International/Russo/p/book/9781032064482">the focus of a book I recently edited</a>.</p>
<p>At one end of the 18 countries <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Law-Education-and-the-Place-of-Religion-in-Public-Schools-International/Russo/p/book/9781032064482">examined in the book</a>, educators in Mexico impose significant restrictions on what can be taught about faith-based beliefs. According to <a href="https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Mexico_2015">the Mexican Constitution</a>, “State education shall be maintained entirely apart from any religious doctrine.” However, it does allow religious institutions to provide faith-based education through the private schools they sponsor. </p>
<p>Most nations the book analyzes are more open to teaching about religion in public schools as long as instruction remains objective and does not indoctrinate students. Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa and Sweden all adopt this approach in varying degrees.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.stf.jus.br/arquivo/cms/legislacaoConstituicao/anexo/brazil_federal_constitution.pdf">according to the Brazilian Constitution</a>, optional religious education should be offered during the day for elementary students. The country’s <a href="https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/Leis/L9394.htm">National Education Act</a> describes this as a way of “ensuring respect for Brazil’s religious cultural diversity, and any form of proselytism is prohibited.”</p>
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<span class="caption">Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (in tan suit) and Minister of Education Camilo Santana attend the launch of the literacy program for schoolchildren.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/brazilian-president-luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva-and-minister-news-photo/1258642461?adppopup=true">Mateus Bonomi/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Australia allows <a href="https://www.saasso.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Administrative-Instructions-and-Guidelines-Section-3.pdf">nondenominational classes about religion</a> to help students understand the “influence of religion in life and society and the variety of beliefs by which people live.” In addition, it permits faith-based student clubs, as well as religious seminars that amount to no more than one half day per term. Parents can ask that their children be excused, or students may participate in ethics courses instead.</p>
<p>At the other end, England, Malaysia and Turkey mandate teaching about religion in public schools, though British parents may exempt their children. England’s <a href="https://democraticservices.hounslow.gov.uk/documents/s39772/Updated%20guidance%20on%20RE-FINAL.pdf">Department for Children, Schools and Families</a> strongly encourages that instruction include multiple religious perspectives, while classes in the other two countries are allowed to be more from faith-based perspectives.</p>
<p>Malaysia, which declares Islam <a href="https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Malaysia_2007">the official religion</a>, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Law-Education-and-the-Place-of-Religion-in-Public-Schools-International/Russo/p/book/9781032064482">mandates faith-based instruction on Islam</a> for Muslim students. Non-Muslims must attend moral studies classes. Turkey, meanwhile, requires religious culture and moral knowledge courses for grades 4-12 that focus on Islam. Parents who belong to other religions have the right <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/turkey/">to exempt their children</a> from these classes.</p>
<p>What happens in public schools in the U.S. today will significantly shape tomorrow’s society. I believe encouraging teaching about religion can help America’s rapidly diversifying population to understand and respect others’ beliefs or lack thereof. Discussing religions in an inclusive, objective and academic way can certainly be challenging in a classroom, as there is a fine line between teaching about it and proselytizing – but not doing so has risks as well.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219783/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles J. Russo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many countries wrestle with whether to include any kind of education about religion in public school lessons, and each one takes its own approach.Charles J. Russo, Joseph Panzer Chair in Education and Research Professor of Law, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2050362023-05-05T11:33:51Z2023-05-05T11:33:51ZHow King Charles’s coronation will reflect his desire to be defender of all faiths<p>Nearly 30 years ago, the then-Prince Charles indicated that as king he wanted not just to inherit the monarch’s traditional title of “defender of the faith”, but also to be a “defender of faith”. The monarch swears oaths of commitment to Protestantism and as supreme governor of the Church of England, but Charles has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/09/king-charles-to-be-defender-of-the-faith-but-also-a-defender-of-faiths">repeatedly said</a> he also wants to be a protector of all main religious faiths, non-Christian as well as Christian.</p>
<p>For decades, royal observers have speculated about the shape <a href="https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/research/2015/09/01/who-wants-a-christian-coronation">the coronation might take</a> in an age of greater devolution, religious pluralism and increased secularisation. Contrary to some proposals for its reform or even its replacement by a civil ceremony, the <a href="https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2023-04/23-24132%20Coronation%20Liturgy.pdf">new coronation liturgy</a> remains a Church of England service. But seeking balance between old and new, it is now considerably expanded in its symbolic scope, with a larger and more diverse cast of religious participants. </p>
<p>The liturgy is as finely crafted as one would expect of a text which will have been prepared over several decades of negotiations between leaders of the church, their liturgical experts, palace officials, civil servants and representatives of the different churches and faiths. It attempts to adapt a very old rite, with medieval origins and largely unchanged since the Reformation of the 16th century, into a ritual with contemporary resonances.</p>
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<p><em>This piece is part of our coverage of <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/coronation-of-king-charles-iii-134594?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Coronation2023&utm_content=InArticleTop">King Charles III’s coronation</a>. The first coronation of a British monarch since 1953 comes at a time of reckoning for the monarchy, the royal family and the Commonwealth.</em></p>
<p><em>For more royal analysis, revisit our coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/platinum-jubilee-116056?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Coronation2023&utm_content=InArticleTop">Platinum jubilee</a>, and her <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/death-of-queen-elizabeth-ii-126761?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Coronation2023&utm_content=InArticleTop">death in September 2022</a>.</em></p>
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<p>The homage by hereditary aristocrats is replaced by an homage of the people. Where once there was exclusion there is now inclusion. For the first time, women conduct elements of the ceremony. Rishi Sunak, Britain’s first Hindu prime minister, will recite a biblical verse. </p>
<p>The most striking difference from the <a href="https://www.oremus.org/liturgy/coronation/1953/">1953 coronation service</a> is the participation by members of non-Christian faiths. The liturgy opens with a procession of leaders and representatives of faith communities. The presentation of regalia to the king has been made more elaborate, chiefly in order to accommodate actions by Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Sikh members of the House of Lords. </p>
<p>The end of the ceremony includes a greeting spoken collectively by leaders and representatives of the Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim and Buddhist communities. This statement spells out the leading theme of “public service” that has been added to the traditional service of consecration of the king:</p>
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<p>Neighbours in faith, we acknowledge the value of public service. We unite with people of all faiths and beliefs in thanksgiving, and in service with you for the common good.</p>
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<p>Prayers during the blessing are said by leaders of the Greek Orthodox church in Britain, the Free Churches, and Churches Together in England, and even more notably, given the historic Protestantism of the monarchy and the British state, by the Roman Catholic archbishop of Westminster.</p>
<p>One innovation in 1953 was that a copy of the Bible was presented to the queen by the moderator of the general assembly of the Church of Scotland, the head of the second established church in the UK. Now, the archbishops of the Church of Ireland, the archbishop of the Church in Wales and the primus of the Episcopal Church of Scotland will assist with various acts. Music will be sung in Welsh, Scots Gaelic and Irish Gaelic. </p>
<h2>Coronation for a modern audience</h2>
<p>For the modern and global audience of millions expected to watch the ceremony, many of the ancient elements of the coronation will need to be explained. Not just the meanings of seemingly archaic words, actions and regalia, but also their intended symbolism and relevance for contemporary society. With this in mind, a second version of the liturgy has been published, with <a href="https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2023-05/23-24132%20Coronation%20Liturgy%20Commentary_02%20May.pdf">added commentary</a>, and a sermon by the archbishop of Canterbury (omitted in 1953) is now re-introduced to enable further explanation.</p>
<p>In effect, the whole ritual has been revised. The ancient structure and actions are retained, but many of the accompanying words have been redrafted and shortened. The holy communion, integral for the consecration of a Christian monarch, is conducted not according to The Book of Common Prayer used since 1559, but by extracts from Common Worship, introduced in 2000. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/sites/constitution_unit/files/197_swearing_in_the_new_king_complete.pdf">The religious oaths</a>, which are required by long established laws and are awkward matters to have altered by parliament, are preceded by a qualification. The archbishop declares the Church of England, which the king swears to uphold, is committed not just to “the true profession of the Gospel”, but also to “foster an environment in which people of all faiths and beliefs may live freely”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/king-charles-iiis-coronation-oath-is-a-crucial-part-of-the-ceremony-experts-explain-202870">King Charles III's coronation oath is a crucial part of the ceremony – experts explain</a>
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<p>Leaders of other churches have had parts in great royal and national services since the 1980s, and other faith communities have been represented for over 20 years. </p>
<p>At a faith reception during her diamond jubilee year in 2012, Queen Elizabeth II <a href="https://www.royal.uk/queens-speech-lambeth-palace-15-february-2012">expressed her belief</a> that the church’s purpose should include protection of the free practice of all faiths in Britain. </p>
<p>As the symbolic head of the nation, the monarch has to try to be representative. In a transformed religious culture, the Church of England has needed new ways to justify its privileged status as a <a href="https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781783274680/the-church-of-england-and-british-politics-since-1900/">national and established church</a>. All this explains the re-styled coronation of King Charles III.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205036/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Williamson has received funding from The Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p>The coronation is a Church of England service, expanded for the contemporary age.Philip Williamson, Emeritus Professor of Modern British History, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1977852023-03-30T13:48:59Z2023-03-30T13:48:59ZMLK’s vision of social justice included religious pluralism – a house of many faiths<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517973/original/file-20230328-746-4mo8dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C1%2C1017%2C688&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Martin Luther King, Jr. leads a group that includes a nun and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel during the Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights march.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/dr-martin-luther-king-jr-arm-in-arm-with-his-chief-aide-rev-news-photo/517354530?adppopup=true">Bettmann via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The life and legacy of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/remembering-martin-luther-king-jr-5-things-ive-learned-curating-the-mlk-collection-at-morehouse-college-174839">Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.</a> have been the subject of <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/19/kings-legacy-still-cause-of-debate/4654407/">ongoing debate</a> ever since <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/assassination-martin-luther-king-jr">his assassination</a> on April 4, 1968. </p>
<p>Today, those invoking King’s memory range from <a href="https://blacklivesmatter.com/mlks-dream-our-fight/">Black Lives Matters</a> organizers and <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/01/16/remarks-by-president-biden-at-the-national-action-networks-annual-mlk-day-breakfast/">President Joe Biden</a> to <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/zelensky-invokes-pearl-harbor-and-911-as-he-pleads-for-more-from-washington/">Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy</a>. Educators trying to teach Black history <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/04/opinion/black-history-desantis-college-board.html">call on his principles</a>, even as <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/01/16/martin-luther-king-dream-speech-colorblind-racism">their opponents</a> claim that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/04/opinion/black-history-desantis-college-board.html">lessons about systemic racism</a> go against King’s desire not to judge people “by the color of their skin.” </p>
<p>In an age of polarization, it is worth remembering that one of the pillars of King’s philosophy was <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2018/06/12/the-pluralism-of-mlk/">pluralism</a>: the idea of multiple communities engaging one another, acknowledging their differences and shared bonds, and striving to create what King called a “<a href="https://www.religion-online.org/article/martin-luther-kings-vision-of-the-beloved-community/">Beloved Community</a>.”</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://religion.sdsu.edu/faculty-and-staff/whitaker">African American philosopher who studies comparative religion</a>, I am especially interested in what role <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/635642/">religious pluralism</a> played in King’s fight for civil rights in the United States of America and human liberation around the world.</p>
<h2>A chorus of faiths</h2>
<p>King’s worldview was <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/cb382cf89fed3735ec9cf77017b99a2b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1821483">deeply nurtured</a> by his experiences in the Black Church, where the Bible’s stories of freedom and oppression are central. The Book of Exodus, for example, tells the story of Hebrew slaves seeking deliverance, and the message has been a frequent theme in Black hymns and preaching for centuries. In the Book of Amos, the prophet cries out, “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Amos%205%3A24&version=ESV">Let justice roll down like waters</a>” – which is a line King famously quoted in his <a href="https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm">“I Have a Dream” speech</a>.</p>
<p>Building off the work of other <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/men-who-inspired-martin-luther-king-jr-4019032">pioneering Black Christians</a>, King <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/1/19/7852311/martin-luther-king-faith">embraced</a> <a href="https://www.beaconbroadside.com/broadside/2013/04/mlk-interfaith-visionary.html">interfaith leadership</a>. His mentor <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-howard-thurman-met-gandhi-and-brought-nonviolence-to-the-civil-rights-movement-110148">Howard Thurman</a>, who founded the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, traveled to India to meet with activist Mahatma Gandhi, who was Hindu.</p>
<p>Gandhi’s approach to nonviolent protest was also influential for Mordecai Johnson, president of Howard University, whose sermon on the subject after a trip to India in 1949 <a href="https://www.yearofgandhi2019.org/theology.html#:%7E:text=Mordecai%20Johnson%2C%20president%20of%20Howard,influenced%20Martin%20Luther%20King%20Jr.">profoundly shaped King’s religious philosophy</a>.</p>
<p>The religious diversity of King’s coalitions was evident in events like the 1965 <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/selma-montgomery-march">March on Selma</a>, where some participants were severely beaten by police on “Bloody Sunday.” </p>
<p>Marchers came from <a href="https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/youth/chorus/workshop3/173645.shtml">a chorus of faiths</a> that included <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/justice/54-miles-freedom-catholics-were-prominent-1965-selma-march">priests and nuns</a>, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/selma-people-who-died_n_6810430">Episcopal seminarian</a>, high-profile <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/reeb-james">Unitarian Universalists</a> like James Reeb, who was murdered days later, as well as <a href="https://blogs.library.duke.edu/rubenstein/2015/01/14/jewish-voices-selma-montgomery-march/">Jewish leaders</a> like Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517970/original/file-20230328-518-w6yar9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A photograph shows a crowd sitting in church pews as a man in a clerical scholar speaks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517970/original/file-20230328-518-w6yar9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517970/original/file-20230328-518-w6yar9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517970/original/file-20230328-518-w6yar9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517970/original/file-20230328-518-w6yar9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517970/original/file-20230328-518-w6yar9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517970/original/file-20230328-518-w6yar9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517970/original/file-20230328-518-w6yar9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Civil rights marchers attend the memorial service for Unitarian Minister James Reeb, who was killed by segregationists during the Selma-Montgomery marches.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/civil-rights-marchers-attend-the-memorial-service-for-news-photo/1077329658?adppopup=true">Flip Schulke Archives/Corbis Historical via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Complementing his Black Church upbringing, King was inspired by wisdom across continents and cultures, from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/martin-luther-king-jr-in-dialogue-with-the-ancient-greeks-53550">Greek classics</a> and <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/palm-sunday-sermon-mohandas-k-gandhi-delivered-dexter-avenue-baptist-church">Gandhi</a> to Buddhist leaders like <a href="https://tricycle.org/article/martin-luther-king-thich-nhat-hanh/">Thich Nhat Hanh</a>. Despite their differing dogmas, he hoped leaders from across the religious spectrum and those of <a href="https://blog.education.nationalgeographic.org/2013/08/28/pilgrimage-march-on-washington/">no particular faith</a> would join efforts to promote <a href="https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/teaching-about-kings-radical-approach-to-social-justice">economic and racial justice and stand against imperialism</a>.</p>
<h2>‘The great world house’</h2>
<p>When King used the word “pluralism,” he assumed that its ideal of belonging had both religious and racial connotations. For example, King praised the Supreme Court’s decision in <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/665/engel-v-vitale">Engel v. Vitale</a>, which concluded that public schools could not sponsor prayers, and which segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace opposed. “In a <a href="https://thehumanist.com/commentary/remembering-the-humanism-of-martin-luther-king/">pluralistic society</a> such as ours, who is to determine what prayer shall be spoken, and by whom?” King said in a 1965 interview.</p>
<p>More than a decade earlier, during his time at seminary, King had written <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/study-mithraism">a paper</a> exhibiting a keen awareness of Christianity’s connections with other faiths: “To discuss Christianity without mentioning other religions would be like discussing the greatness of the Atlantic Ocean without the slightest mention of the many tributaries that keep it flowing.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517971/original/file-20230328-22-k0rcr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men in suits stand on either side of Martin Luther King, Jr. as they hand him an award." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517971/original/file-20230328-22-k0rcr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517971/original/file-20230328-22-k0rcr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517971/original/file-20230328-22-k0rcr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517971/original/file-20230328-22-k0rcr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517971/original/file-20230328-22-k0rcr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517971/original/file-20230328-22-k0rcr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517971/original/file-20230328-22-k0rcr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">George Maislen, left, president of the United Synagogue of America, presents an award to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. alongside Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/george-maislen-president-of-the-united-synagogue-of-america-news-photo/517350902?adppopup=true">Bettmann via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Other vivid imagery like “<a href="https://ugapress.org/book/9780820356044/reclaiming-the-great-world-house/">the great world house</a>” underscored how King interpreted all persons and all faiths as living in an <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/michael-halpern/dr-martin-luther-king-jr-and-pluralism-the-advantage-of-holding-multiple-worldviews-228/">interconnected web</a>. Identifying common themes in the discrimination against Indian Dalits, the castes formerly known as “untouchable,” and the plight of African Americans in the U.S., King surmised, “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/28/untouchables-caste-system-us-race-martin-luther-king-india">I am an untouchable</a>.” He also saw parallels between the African American struggle for freedom and the work of labor unions such as the <a href="https://ufw.org/biography-martin-luther-king-jr-praised-cesar-chavez-for-his-indefatigable-work/">National Farm Workers Association</a>. </p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html">Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere</a>,” King insisted.</p>
<h2>King then, today, tomorrow</h2>
<p>King wanted people to embody the <a href="https://reflections.yale.edu/article/all-together-now-pluralism-and-faith/limits-religious-pluralism">highest forms of their own religion and morality</a>. Religion at its best, he thought, promoted peace, understanding, love and good will. This is true of “<a href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/opinion/readers/2015/01/17/letter-kings-legacy/21877441/">all of the great religions of the world</a>,” he wrote in a statement for Redbook magazine.</p>
<p>Those were the kinds of ethics King hoped to fulfill in his own Christian ministry, as is clear in his wishes for what might be said <a href="https://www.beaconbroadside.com/broadside/2018/02/martin-luther-king-jrs-the-drum-major-instinct-sermon-turns-50.html">at his own funeral</a>. </p>
<p>“I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others,” he said. “I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to love somebody. … I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518461/original/file-20230330-20-an387k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men, one in a suit and one in a monk's robe, speak into microphones on a table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518461/original/file-20230330-20-an387k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518461/original/file-20230330-20-an387k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518461/original/file-20230330-20-an387k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518461/original/file-20230330-20-an387k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518461/original/file-20230330-20-an387k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518461/original/file-20230330-20-an387k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518461/original/file-20230330-20-an387k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Martin Luther King Jr., left, speaks during a Chicago news conference with the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh in May 1966.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VietnamObitThichNhatHanh/ffdc9efe1f6e450f9fc26485b30a87f5/photo?Query=martin%20luther%20king%20thich%20nhat%20hanh&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=2&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Edward Kitch</a></span>
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<p>Yet <a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2023/03/03/militarism-racism-poverty-military-industrial-complex/stories/202303030003">King’s goal</a> of a world without hunger, war and racism remains unrealized. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/09/magazine/poverty-by-america-matthew-desmond.html">Poverty persists</a>. <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-looming-stalemate-in-ukraine-one-year-after-the-russian-invasion-197681">War continues</a>. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/martin-luther-king-police-brutality/619090/">Black people’s safety is still imperiled</a>. </p>
<p>Resolving current social and political crises in America may require the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/15/us/mlk-i-have-a-dream-speech-blake-cec/index.html">real integration and power-sharing</a> that King’s <a href="http://www.beacon.org/The-Radical-King-P1049.aspx">radical vision</a> demanded. </p>
<p>However, the debate about King’s <a href="http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/blackspeech/bmays.html">pluralist legacy</a> is not only about him, but also about us. How do we want to be remembered? What world are we leaving future generations?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197785/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roy Whitaker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Religious pluralism and social justice were at the core of King’s campaigns – a vision shaped by influences as diverse as Gandhi, the Black church, Greek classics and Buddhism.Roy Whitaker, Associate Professor of Black Religions and American Religious Diversity, San Diego State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1996282023-02-20T13:52:18Z2023-02-20T13:52:18ZIslamist terrorism is rising in the Sahel, but not in Chad – what’s different?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511155/original/file-20230220-18-cskr5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Local residents gather around the biggest mosque in the region for the evening prayer in Bahai, Chad.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the rise of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Boko-Haram">Boko Haram</a> in Nigeria and the emergence of <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/evolution-salafi-jihadist-threat">Islamist-Salafist</a> groups in northern Mali in 2013, the Sahel has increasingly been caught in the maelstrom of Islamist terrorism. </p>
<p>The region is now described as the new <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/02/1133217">global epicentre</a> of violent extremism. The population is suffering immensely, and in some areas more than <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2021/698048/EPRS_BRI(2021)698048_EN.pdf">2 million</a> people have been displaced. Agriculture and development have come to a halt there.</p>
<p>Five explanations are usually given for the rise of Islamist terrorism in the Sahel: <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/salafism-in-nigeria/5EC64F70A4BCBD521C64C610A0A05FD8">dissatisfaction</a> with the political order, <a href="https://www.clingendael.org/publication/crime-after-jihad-illicit-business-post-conflict-mali">bad governance</a>, <a href="https://www.clingendael.org/publication/crime-after-jihad-illicit-business-post-conflict-mali">corruption</a> and <a href="https://www.africabib.org/rec.php?RID=364364319">ethnic rivalries</a> to <a href="https://issafrica.org/research/policy-brief/money-talks-a-key-reason-youths-join-boko-haram">economic reasons</a> such as poverty or unemployment, especially among the youth. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.undp.org/press-releases/hope-better-jobs-eclipses-religious-ideology-main-driver-recruitment-violent-extremist-groups-sub-saharan-africa">recent study</a> cited economic precarity as the main factor. This is a scenario where young people in particular face high unemployment and thus lose hope about the future.</p>
<p>Chad is one of the <a href="https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/country-insights#/ranks">poorest countries</a> in the world. It was ruled for 30 years by the authoritarian president Idriss Déby Itno, who <a href="https://theconversation.com/idriss-deby-itno-offered-chadians-great-hope-but-ended-up-leaving-a-terrible-legacy-159443">died in 2021</a> under unexplained circumstances. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/idriss-deby-itno-offered-chadians-great-hope-but-ended-up-leaving-a-terrible-legacy-159443">Idriss Déby Itno offered Chadians great hope, but ended up leaving a terrible legacy</a>
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<p>The country fulfils all the conditions associated with Islamist terrorism. But, so far, the threat reaches Chad from the neighbouring countries and not from the inside. So then, what holds Chadian society together? </p>
<p>For my <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/contjas/article/view/239122">research</a> I drew on data from an opinion survey I conducted in five Chadian towns (the capital N’Djamena, Abéché, Sarh, Mongo and Moundou) from 2015 to 2016. My aim was to get the views of all ethnic and linguistic groups in the country. Long-term studies show that people do not change their political and religious attitudes overnight. In view of the actual political transition in Chad and the increase in Islamist terror in the region, the results are still valid today and could allow conclusions to be drawn for other countries.</p>
<p>The results show that one reason the threat of Islamist terrorism doesn’t come from inside is because Chadians want to live together peacefully. Other reasons include the fact that Chadians have high religious tolerance and Deby’s authoritarian regime favoured groups who had a tendency towards religious fundamentalist ideas - appeasing them with economic benefits. </p>
<h2>The findings</h2>
<p>My research sampled 1,857 people who answered about 130 questions in face-to-face interviews. By analysing the quantitative dataset, I identified groups within Chadian society according to their propensity for democracy, cohabitation and religiosity, and their religious fundamentalist tendencies.</p>
<p>The data confirmed a high fragmentation of Chad’s society along ethnic, religious and economic lines. </p>
<p><strong>Democracy:</strong> Chad is one of the <a href="https://bti-project.org/en/reports/country-report/TCD#pos4">least democratic</a> countries of the world. Yet more than half of the survey respondents supported democratic ideas. </p>
<p><strong>Tolerance:</strong> A substantial majority of respondents expressed the desire to live peacefully with other groups. But the respondents who labelled themselves Salafists – the spectrum of Salafism ranges from a spiritual renewal of Islam as in the times of Mohammed to a hybrid religious-political ideology seeking to establish a global caliphate – were the least inclined to social coexistence.</p>
<p>During individual interviews, religious Muslim and Christian leaders and opinion leaders also emphasised Chadians’ willingness to live together peacefully. They stressed that both religions are frequently represented in many families. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-lies-behind-the-rise-of-jihadist-movements-in-africa-42905">What lies behind the rise of jihadist movements in Africa</a>
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<p><strong>Religion:</strong> Chad, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2010/04/15/religious-affiliation-islam-and-christianity-in-sub-saharan-africa/">a predominantly Muslim society</a>, is one of the few countries in the Sahel region to have a substantial Christian minority. This is partly a legacy of French colonial rule, which fostered a Christian educated elite in the south of the country.</p>
<p>It is also a consequence of Déby’s authoritarian and corrupt rule which emphasised the balance between the different religions. However, he favoured certain groups from the north who had been Islamised for centuries. Members of these groups were over represented in the highest income categories.</p>
<p>The data confirmed that religion played an important role in the daily life of most of those interviewed. The regular observance of religious practices is firmly embedded in the everyday life of Muslims and Christians. </p>
<p>The religious practices of the other religions were also acknowledged. </p>
<p>I was particularly interested in the respondents’ tendency towards religious fundamentalist ideas that could possibly lead to religious violence. The dataset allowed me to create an “Islamist fundamentalism” index. </p>
<p>In contrast to “religiosity”, which measures religious affiliation, belief and practice, conceptualising the measurement of any <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327582ijpr1401_4">religious fundamentalism</a> focuses on:</p>
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<li><p>a literal understanding of the sacred book of the respective religion </p></li>
<li><p>the exclusivity of one’s religion </p></li>
<li><p>the importance of religion in societal life. </p></li>
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<p>The Islamist fundamentalism index also contained specific items like the introduction of Sharia law. In this way, I was able to identify respondents who were more inclined towards Islamic fundamentalism, and might even be willing to lean towards Islamist terrorism to achieve their goals.</p>
<p>The highest Islamist attitudes were expressed by more than a third of the sampled Muslim population. I found the strongest Islamist fundamentalist attitudes among respondents who attended an Arabic primary school or a Qur’anic school and had no further schooling, and among respondents with two years of higher education.</p>
<p>Only a minority of the respondents who never went to any school showed Islamist fundamentalist attitudes. </p>
<p><strong>Social profile:</strong> A large number of respondents who scored high as Islamist fundamentalists were merchants and came from high income groups. Most were most likely to have benefited economically during the Déby era. They displayed the biggest support for the late authoritarian president, embraced above average undemocratic attitudes, and supported authoritarian structures in general.</p>
<h2>What’s significant</h2>
<p>Why are these results noteworthy? </p>
<p>Research in other countries has shown that dissatisfaction and frustration about bad governance, corruption or poverty fosters the emergence of Islamist terrorism. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/jihadism-and-coups-in-west-africas-sahel-region-a-complex-relationship-176988">Jihadism and coups in West Africa’s Sahel region: a complex relationship</a>
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<p>In Chad, however, the profiteers of the Déby regime were the most fundamentalist. They admitted that they were willing to take to violence if they did not agree with their political leader. But, with their own position secured, they seem not to have seen any need to turn against the corrupt structures that benefited them. They had made peace with the regime.</p>
<p>Déby’s son Mahamat Déby has <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-56836109">taken power</a> by violating the country’s constitution. He was appointed transitional president in October 2022 following a so-called national inclusive dialogue. Like his father, he has to deal with sporadic attacks by <a href="https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/boko-haram-nigeria">Boko Haram</a> in the Lake Chad region, which is threatened by Islamist terrorism. The economic situation of the country is precarious. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chad-is-making-a-huge-effort-to-find-peace-chadians-arent-convinced-it-will-work-189268">Chad is making a huge effort to find peace: Chadians aren't convinced it will work</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<p>Will Mahamat Déby continue to satisfy his wealthier, non-democratic compatriots, who are more inclined towards Islamist fundamentalist ideas and were the strong supporters of his father’s rule?</p>
<p>Or will he opt for democratic structures and fair distribution of resources and wealth so as not to give fundamentalist Islamist groups inside Chad a reason to turn to violence and against the state?</p>
<p>The answers to these questions are unclear. What’s needed is more knowledge about these groups and their attitudes, their behaviour and propensity for radicalisation. This will broaden our understanding of Islamist tendencies and threats, and to develop long-term peace in the Sahel.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199628/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helga Dickow received funding from the Gerda-Henkel-Foundation in the framework of the special research programme “Islam” for a research project about laicism in Chad. </span></em></p>Chad fulfils all conditions to be affected by Islamist terrorism. But the threat so far comes from its neighbours, not from the inside.Helga Dickow, Senior Researcher at the Arnold Bergstraesser Institut, Freiburg Germany, University of FreiburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1989282023-02-15T13:55:13Z2023-02-15T13:55:13ZNigeria’s election: six dangers of mixing religion with politics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508344/original/file-20230206-27-xjgrc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Supporters of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party describe their presidential candidate and his running mate as unifiers because of their ethnic and religious mix. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the issues that has generated great concern among voters in the run up to the Nigerian <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-64187170">presidential elections</a> is religion. </p>
<p>Many Nigerians <a href="https://doi.org/10.54561/prj0202123l">see</a> the mixing of religion and politics as an impediment to progress and development. This idea can be traced to Europe. The Middle Ages were a time when religious authorities and political authorities clashed in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01436599714722">European states</a>, resulting in instability. The need to separate religion from politics thus became normalised in western political thought by the early 20th century. Over the years the idea found its way into other societies.</p>
<p><a href="https://libjournals.mtsu.edu/index.php/scientia/article/view/1802">Recent studies</a> have shown that, in fact, the relationship between religion and politics isn’t always unproductive. Religion embeds some doctrines such as love and obedience to political authority that support secular authorities and the development process. And religious authorities and their followers have the capacity to be tolerant. </p>
<p>Still, the experience in multi-religious societies where religious communities vie for resources and power does point to some dangers for peace, development and democracy. </p>
<p>This has become apparent in the build up to Nigeria’s 2023 presidential elections. For instance, the <a href="https://canng.org/">Christian Association of Nigeria</a> and the Northern Christian Elders Forum have <a href="https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2022/06/11/dont-present-muslim-running-mates-can-northern-christian-elders-warn-tinubu-atiku/">cautioned</a> against the nomination of Muslim vice-presidential candidates by the <a href="https://apc.com.ng/">All Progressives Congress</a> and the <a href="https://peoplesdemocraticparty.com.ng/">Peoples Democratic Party</a>. </p>
<p>Religious bodies’ interest in who wields the power of the state is not out of place. But the extent of their intervention can portend serious dangers for the state.</p>
<p>These dangers have severe implications for the election and its outcome. The legitimacy and power of the state could be challenged. Religion claims to be based on divine authority, which it considers to be superior to that of the state. This threatens the state’s legitimacy, given that its authority derives from the people and the constitution.</p>
<h2>Six dangers</h2>
<p>Religion’s inroads into politics in Nigeria aren’t new.</p>
<p>Since the return to democratic governance, religion has <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/pentecostal-republic-9781786992406/">influenced</a> how state power is captured. This can be seen in the political statements of religious institutions, their choice of candidates and the inclination of candidates to turn to their religious communities for support. </p>
<p>The trend continues in 2023, with slight variations. </p>
<p>Firstly, leading candidates have appealed to their faith communities, as in the past. Perhaps what is new comes from the All Progressives Congress candidate, Bola Tinubu; he is a Muslim and his wife a Christian. Rather than appealing to one faith community, Tinubu is seeking support from two. Normally, this should promote religious tolerance. But a religiously diverse family that controls state power might not be immune from competition for influence from each religion.</p>
<p>Secondly, there has been an outcry from some quarters about the fact that the ruling <a href="https://apc.com.ng/">All Progressives Congress</a> is presenting voters with a “<a href="https://guardian.ng/opinion/religious-identity-muslim-muslim-ticket-and-2023-elections/">Muslim-Muslim ticket</a>.” The party’s presidential and vice-presidential candidates are both Muslim. </p>
<p>The last time this happened was in <a href="https://leadership.ng/29-years-after-abiola-kingibe-tinubu-resurrects-muslim-muslim-ticket-picks-shettima-as-running-mate/">1993</a>. In that poll Nigerians overwhelmingly voted for Moshood Abiola and Babagana Kingibe – possibly because Abiola broke through the religious divide through philanthropy and business investments. Today, having a similar ticket is risky.</p>
<p>Thirdly, fuelling the anger about the Muslim-Muslim ticket is the escalation of terrorist attacks by Boko Haram in north-east Nigeria. Both Muslims and Christians have been victims of the terror. But the popular impression among Christians is that they have been the <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/09/muslim-muslim-ticket-christianity-would-suffer-at-nigerias-seat-of-sovereignty/">most targeted</a> for persecution and Islamisation. </p>
<p>Fourth: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12088">religion</a> is a way of life for many people in Nigeria. It has a direct impact on their social and political decisions. The danger here is that a religious community could insist on voting one of their own members into office even though the candidate is generally considered to be a misfit.</p>
<p>The fifth danger is that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0735275115572153">inter-religious conflict</a> could be ignited if one religious group rejects the candidate of another, or if <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/02/why-religion-is-dangerous-for-politics-in-nigeria/">a politician mobilises</a> his religious community against his opponent in another religion. </p>
<p>Religion could also be used to mobilise ethnic support against political competitions from other groups. Nigeria is not only multi-religious but also multi-ethnic. The country has witnessed many incidents of conflicts along ethno-religious line. The civil war of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nigerian-civil-war">1967-1970</a> was the most catastrophic.</p>
<p>Lastly, there’s the threat that <a href="https://www.idea.int/news-media/news/political-inclusion-vital-sustainable-democracy">citizens</a> could be excluded from the political process. If a religious community, by virtue of numbers, is allowed to dominate the political space, it could prevent minorities from having a say and being represented in government. Nigeria has <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2007-09-02-voa22-66787697/565609.html">substantial numbers of</a> indigenous religious practitioners and a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018/9/18/nigerias-undercover-atheists-in-their-words">growing</a> atheist community. Any of them might feel excluded by the dominant Muslim-Christian politics. </p>
<h2>Mitigation strategies</h2>
<p>One way to mitigate these threats is for the constitution to properly define the position of religion in the electoral process. </p>
<p>The Nigerian public and the political parties have worked out a temporary system called “<a href="https://africaupclose.wilsoncenter.org/ethnicity-religion-and-polarization-in-nigeria/">religious balancing</a>.” With this informal system, a Muslim candidate stands for election with a Christian deputy, and vice versa.</p>
<p>But this time the ruling party is fielding two <a href="https://guardian.ng/opinion/religious-identity-muslim-muslim-ticket-and-2023-elections/">Muslim</a> candidates for the upcoming election. The constitution needs to address the issue. It recognises the religious diversity of Nigerians but is silent on the religious identities of political office holders.</p>
<p>It is also important to incorporate the leaders of a variety of religious communities into government and political parties. Religious leaders can educate their followers to support any politician irrespective of their religious differences.</p>
<p>Religious tolerance is also necessary. Tolerance promotes inter-religious understanding, which in turn helps people to respect each other’s political choices.</p>
<p>Mixing religion with politics does not bode well for the <a href="http://theconversation.com/nigeria-insecurity-2022-was-a-bad-year-and-points-to-need-for-major-reforms-194554">ongoing tension</a> in many parts of the country. These tensions could seriously damage the already fragile Nigerian state.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198928/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adeyemi Balogun previously receives funding from DAAD for his doctoral study in Germany. </span></em></p>Damage to the fragile Nigerian state is one possible fallout of mixing religion with politics.Adeyemi Balogun, Lecturer, Osun State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1803062022-10-14T12:19:46Z2022-10-14T12:19:46ZEvangelical college students often feel misunderstood – what helps boost understanding between students of all faiths?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460824/original/file-20220502-14-sn8m77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=52%2C45%2C4987%2C3309&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Do students' views of people with different beliefs really change on campus?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/NerdWallet-Millennial-Money-Enroll-This-Fall/70126f085adb4d2a9d6b2fd8994ec01b/photo?Query=college%20campus&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=7438&currentItemNo=23">AP Photo/Darron Cummings</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://ehe.osu.edu/directory?id=mayhew.65">Our research team</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Y_dDF6oAAAAJ&hl=en">has studied</a> <a href="https://www.educationalleadership.msstate.edu/people/dr-christa-winkler/">college students’ attitudes</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-017-0283-8">toward evangelicals</a>, a topic that tends to prompt strong reactions.</p>
<p>Some liberals don’t see the topic as worthy of discussion – why study whether Americans appreciate a privileged group with <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/faith-in-the-halls-of-power-9780195376050?cc=us&lang=en&">strong influence</a> on society? Meanwhile, many conservatives <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10656219.2014.901932">are adamant</a> that evangelical perspectives are <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442224070/So-Many-Christians-So-Few-Lions-Is-There-Christianophobia-in-the-United-States?">not tolerated</a>, let alone welcome, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15507394.2005.10012355">on U.S. university campuses</a>.</p>
<p>Yet <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.775303">our findings</a> about students’ attitudes underscore important lessons about fostering tolerance and appreciation on campus for any group. Views of evangelicals are particularly interesting, since they highlight the complexities of social privilege: how individuals <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/perceptions-discrimination-muslims-christians/519135/">can feel discriminated against</a>, even when their community as a whole is influential.</p>
<h2>Surveying students</h2>
<p>The Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey, <a href="https://www.interfaithamerica.org/research/ideals/">or IDEALS</a>, surveyed 9,470 college students from 122 institutions across the country at three times: the beginning of their first year, the end of their first year, and the end of their senior year, which wrapped up in spring 2019. As part of this project, conducted by a team of researchers from Ohio State University, North Carolina University and the nonprofit <a href="https://interfaithamerica.org/research">Interfaith America</a>, we asked students about their attitudes toward religious, spiritual and secular groups, including but not limited to atheists, Jews, Muslims and evangelicals. </p>
<p>We asked students to indicate their responses to four statements on a scale of 1, or “disagree strongly,” to 5, or “agree strongly”:</p>
<p>1) In general, people in this group make positive contributions to society.</p>
<p>2) In general, individuals in this group are ethical people.</p>
<p>3) I have things in common with people in this group.</p>
<p>4) In general, I have a positive attitude toward people in this group.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.775303">analysis</a> controlled for other variables – such as the institution’s type, selectivity and size, and students’ race, gender, sexual orientation, major and political affiliation – to home in on the specific ways the campus learning environment was related to students’ views about different religious groups.</p>
<p>Compared with their attitudes toward other religious groups on campus, students’ appreciation for evangelicals grew at a slower pace, but still grew. On average, students’ responses showed an increase of over 40% in appreciation toward evangelicals by the end of their first year. By the time students graduated, they demonstrated another 30% increase between the end of their first year and fourth year of college. </p>
<h2>Campus climate</h2>
<p>After seeing that students’ views of evangelicals improved, on average, we wanted to better understand why.</p>
<p>First, we looked at the experiences students said were related to their gains, such as whether they took a religious studies course. Then, we conducted 18 case studies at institutions of various sizes and affiliations to learn about campus culture and hear from hundreds of students in focus groups. In these groups, we showed students data on the gains reported by their peers on campus and asked them why they thought these gains were made.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.775303">We found</a> that appreciation increased for students on campuses they consider committed to inclusion for people of faiths, and people of no faith – regardless of whether the institutions were public or private, large or small, selective or not.</p>
<p>Some students talked about the impact of simply living and studying alongside people from different backgrounds. Many named the influence of interfaith and multifaith centers, spaces dedicated to bringing people from different religions together. </p>
<p>For example, a student at a Protestant-affiliated institution who identified as agnostic noted that she had “experienc[ed] a lot of toxic Christianity” growing up. She credited her interactions with a “progressive Christian” chaplain at her campus’s interfaith center with helping her understand that Christian beliefs and identities are diverse, and not limited to the type of faith she was introduced to as a child.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A crowd of students in a classroom, many of them with their hands up in worship, facing two singers at the front." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489284/original/file-20221011-18-yuizqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489284/original/file-20221011-18-yuizqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489284/original/file-20221011-18-yuizqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489284/original/file-20221011-18-yuizqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489284/original/file-20221011-18-yuizqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489284/original/file-20221011-18-yuizqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489284/original/file-20221011-18-yuizqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of a Christian group at California State University Long Beach worship in a lecture hall in 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-the-csulb-intervarsity-christian-fellowship-turn-news-photo/1034906064?phrase=intervarsity&adppopup=true">Scott Varley/Digital First Media/Torrance Daily Breeze via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Survey data also suggested that, on average, students whose views of evangelicals improved reported having at least two curricular experiences related to religion. This included many type of activities: for example, enrolling in a course specifically designed to enhance knowledge of different religious traditions; reflecting on one’s own religion in relationship to other perspectives as part of a class; and discussing other students’ religious or nonreligious backgrounds in class.</p>
<h2>Personal relationships</h2>
<p>How students related to one another was another important theme that often came up in discussions about views of evangelicals.</p>
<p>Evangelicals have to negotiate a seeming paradox: As Protestant Christians, who have long held influence in U.S. culture and politics, they belong to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/abc.206">a privileged group</a>. Yet <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2007.0004">many evangelical students say</a> they <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/08/silencing-religious-students-on-campus/497951/">feel unwelcome</a> and misunderstood because of their beliefs.</p>
<p>Many non-Christian students who themselves feel marginalized because of their identities <a href="https://theconversation.com/university-can-feel-like-a-hostile-place-to-muslim-students-74385">wrestle with</a> how to make their evangelical peers aware of their relative privilege, and of how their beliefs and actions might affect other students.</p>
<p>For example, one student who identifies as atheist at a small, secular college recalled a Christmas tree put on their door by another student. “The person has literally no idea that that could possibly be upsetting,” they said, but added it was “a very sweet thing to do.” In other words, they believed that the other student was likely ignorant of why the Christmas tree could bother other students, but acting out of good intentions, tempering their anger about the unwelcome decoration.</p>
<p>Many students discussed developing empathy and humility. A Catholic student attending a Catholic college summarized, “Myself being a more liberal Christian, I’m not as accepting of the close-minded evangelical Christian … but that’s kind of being close-minded myself. … So I have to examine myself and be like, ‘I’m okay with them being them, even if I don’t agree with them.’ They’re saying, ‘All of these people are saying let’s accept everybody, but you’re not accepting me.’ And I said, ‘That’s absolutely right.’ … Even in political realms, too, I don’t agree with you, but I need to be okay with you.”</p>
<p>Finally, student gains in appreciation also seemed to stem from recognition that <a href="https://www.npr.org/2015/12/19/458058251/are-you-an-evangelical-are-you-sure">evangelicals are diverse</a>, not one homogeneous group – as with the student who appreciated her conversations with the Christian chaplain at her campus’s interfaith center. </p>
<p>As a research team, we found this project’s findings left us considering ways to address deep divisions in the U.S. today. Some principles apply to fostering respect in many other situations beyond religion, and beyond college, from our offices at work to the halls of Congress: intentionally but empathetically engaging with one another’s differences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180306/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew J. Mayhew receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the United States Department of Education, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Fetzer Institute, the Merrifield Family Foundation, and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christa Winkler and Musbah Shaheen do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>College can be a time to interact with people with different worldviews, but meaningful exchanges often require intent.Matthew J. Mayhew, Professor of Higher Education, The Ohio State UniversityChrista Winkler, Assistant Professor of Higher Education Leadership, Mississippi State UniversityMusbah Shaheen, PhD student in Higher Education and Student Affairs, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1817562022-05-03T13:10:32Z2022-05-03T13:10:32ZSri Lanka’s protests show a fragile unity – for now<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460164/original/file-20220427-9662-i1tyk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=75%2C88%2C8313%2C5244&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sri Lankan students march during a protest over the economic crisis outside the residence of prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo, April 24, 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Sri%20Lanka%20Economic%20Crisis/3d3c6b6a0d0f4205a6b7a69ee194289e?Query=sri%20lanka&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=46937&currentItemNo=10">AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sri Lanka is facing <a href="https://theconversation.com/sri-lanka-teeters-on-economic-edge-from-pandemic-fueled-financial-crisis-and-ukraine-war-spillovers-179741">its worst economic crises</a> since winning independence from Britain in 1948. Inflation is at an all-time high and protests are <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-happening-in-sri-lanka-and-how-did-the-economic-crisis-start-181060">spreading around the country</a>. </p>
<p>Most public anger <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/sri-lanka-crisis-thousands-of-protestors-ambush-sri-lanka-pm-mahinda-rajapaksas-home-over-economic-crisis-demanding-president-gotabaya-rajapaksa-resig-2916111">is directed</a> toward President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. Critics point to the Rajapaksas’ <a href="https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2022/04/24/years-of-policy-failure-and-covid-throw-sri-lanka-into-deep-crisis/">poor handling of the COVID-19 crisis</a>, and “Gota out” signs demanding their resignations are seen across the country.</p>
<p>Protesters <a href="https://www.news18.com/news/world/sri-lanka-an-island-adrift-fights-for-a-new-beginning-4953140.html">come from all ethnicities and all religions</a>. This seeming unity is notable in Sri Lanka, which has been deeply divided for decades. The country has a violent history of ethnic and religious conflict, and of scapegoating minorities. In recent years, that has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-are-sri-lankas-muslims-115825">particularly true of Muslims</a>, who make up about 10% of the population. As <a href="https://portal.research.lu.se/en/persons/andreas-johansson-3">a historian of religion</a> who focuses on Sri Lanka, I have studied Muslims’ precarious position in Sri Lankan society amid growing discrimination.</p>
<h2>Civil war</h2>
<p>Traditionally, Sri Lanka <a href="http://www.statistics.gov.lk/Population/StaticalInformation/CPH2011/PopulationAtlas">has been divided</a> into three <a href="http://www.statistics.gov.lk/PopHouSat/CPH2012Visualization/htdocs/index.php?usecase=indicator&action=Map&indId=10">major ethnic groups</a>: the Sinhalese, who make up 74% of the population and are mostly Buddhists; the Tamils, about 15%, most of whom are Hindu; and Muslims, who are descendants of Middle Eastern traders and mostly speak the Tamil language.</p>
<p>In 1983 a civil war broke out between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil separatists that lasted until 2009. Violent tensions between the island’s two biggest groups had existed for years, with the Sinhalese majority believing Tamils had received <a href="https://hir.harvard.edu/sri-lankan-civil-war/">preferential treatment under the British</a>. After independence, the situation reversed: for example, Sinhala became <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=6RSHzj2EU-cC">the only official language</a>, meaning that Tamil-speaking Sri Lankans lost jobs in the public sector.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.parliament.lk/files/pdf/constitution.pdf">constitution</a> assures the religious freedom of all, but Buddhism is also given a special status. It states, “The Republic of Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the State to protect and foster” the faith.</p>
<p>The war caused the deaths of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51184085">at least 100,000 people</a>, including <a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2017/03/16/thousands-of-victims-of-sri-lankas-civil-war-remain-unaccounted-for">tens of thousands</a> of civilians, though estimates vary. As many as <a href="https://hrdag.org/srilanka/">100,000 Tamils</a> might still be displaced. Both sides were accused of war crimes, including <a href="https://nofirezone.org">at the end of the war</a>, when Mahinda Rajapaksa – now prime minister – was president, and his brother Gotabaya, now president, was secretary of defense.</p>
<p>Government officials deny abuses, and have tried to block <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/23/world/asia/sri-lanka-civil-war-un-investigation.html">the United Nations’ ongoing investigation</a>.</p>
<h2>New tensions</h2>
<p>After the war the country’s third-largest ethnic group, Muslims, became the new target for Sinhalese nationalists, who claimed that <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-are-sri-lankas-muslims-115825">Muslims</a> had both <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/sri-lanka-saudi-idINKCN1U00LZ">economic and ideological ties</a> with the Middle East. A hardline Buddhist group called the <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-asia/sri-lanka/%E2%80%9Cone-country-one-law%E2%80%9D-sri-lankan-states-hostility-toward-muslims-grows-deeper">Bodu Bala Sena</a> encouraged anti-Muslim sentiment, and accused halal food industries of sponsoring international terrorism.</p>
<p>During Easter 2019, local Muslim terrorists inspired by the Islamic State carried out an attack killing <a href="https://theconversation.com/sri-lankas-easter-sunday-attacks-were-meant-for-international-audience-but-have-local-consequences-117704">over 250 people</a> in several Christian churches and hotels. This was the worst attack in Sri Lanka against civilians since the civil war ended in 2009, and prompted more discrimination against <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-asia/sri-lanka/302-after-sri-lankas-easter-bombings-reducing-risks-future-violence">Muslim citizens</a></p>
<p>Buddhist nationalists supported Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s election as president in 2019. Since then, the government has proposed plans to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/asia-pacific-religion-sri-lanka-51deeb417aefac87802917993825d9a6">ban full-face veils</a> in public and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/13/sri-lanka-to-ban-burka-and-close-1000-islamic-schools">to shut down many Islamic schools</a>. During the pandemic, the government <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220303-sri-lanka-ends-widely-condemned-muslim-burial-policy">forced people who died from COVID-19 to be cremated</a>, in violation of traditional Islamic funeral ceremonies. </p>
<p>In 2021, Amnesty International released <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ASA3748632021ENGLISH.pdf">an 80-page report</a> about anti-Muslim prejudice in the country. The researchers urged Sri Lanka’s government to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which has been used <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/07/sri-lanka-on-hejaaz-hizbullah-and-the-prevention-of-terrorism-act/">to target</a> prominent <a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/12/21/ahna-d21.html">Muslim activists</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Muslims stand while praying inside a structure with metal walls." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460182/original/file-20220428-16-tvhagx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460182/original/file-20220428-16-tvhagx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460182/original/file-20220428-16-tvhagx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460182/original/file-20220428-16-tvhagx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460182/original/file-20220428-16-tvhagx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460182/original/file-20220428-16-tvhagx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460182/original/file-20220428-16-tvhagx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this Nov. 14, 2019 photo, Muslims offer prayers inside a temporary mosque set up next to a mosque damaged by a mob during 2018 riots in the outskirts of Kandy, Sri Lanka.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SriLankaMilitantMonks/2af61fca20834060b279dbdf301e0992/photo?Query=sri%20lanka%20muslim&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=954&currentItemNo=81">AP Photo/Dar Yasin</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Muslims have also expressed <a href="https://www.pressenza.com/2022/03/redefining-identities-land-invasion-in-sri-lankas-eastern-province/">fear of land grabs</a>, which Rauff Hakeem, the leader of the largest <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-12789-3">Muslim political party</a>, the Sri Lankan Muslim Congress, has called his community’s biggest concern. Land seizures by the army have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/may/28/sri-lanka-army-land-grabs-tamil-displacement-report-oakland-institute">major concerns for Tamils</a>, as well.</p>
<h2>Unity or division?</h2>
<p>For now, ethnic tensions appear to be on hold. The common foe is the Rajapaksa family, as protesters demand that the president and prime minister step down. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People sit on long blankets outside for a meal." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460181/original/file-20220428-16-25qmps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460181/original/file-20220428-16-25qmps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460181/original/file-20220428-16-25qmps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460181/original/file-20220428-16-25qmps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460181/original/file-20220428-16-25qmps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460181/original/file-20220428-16-25qmps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460181/original/file-20220428-16-25qmps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sri Lankan Muslims wait to break the Ramadan fast at a protest site outside the president’s office in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on April 20, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SriLankaEconomicCrisis/15fa249db25d465ba1710c09c1f1c7e8/photo?Query=sri%20lanka%20muslim&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=954&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An official spokesman from the Sri Lankan Muslim Congress, who requested to remain anonymous, told me that Muslims’ participation in protests has “surprised the government. Christians who came in thousands after Easter Sunday mass and the clergy of Buddhists in thousands all over the island came together under one banner as Sri Lankans. Not as Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim or Christians.”</p>
<p>Yet <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-asian-studies/article/abs/merchants-maidens-and-mohammedans-a-history-of-muslim-stereotypes-in-sinhala-literature-of-sri-lanka/24711B013ADDEF16680EB438B727657B">Muslims are often stereotyped</a> as wealthy. Given Sinhalese nationalists’ <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0262728014549134">past accusations</a> that Muslims have suspect economic ties with the Middle East, some, including contacts of mine inside the country, have <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/4/5/sri-lanka-gota-needs-to-go-but-so-does-the-ethnocratic-state">voiced concern</a> that leaders could channel ethnic tensions to blame minorities for the country’s economic downfall. Pro-government <a href="https://restofworld.org/2022/newsletter-south-asia-disinformation-campaigns-attempt-to-undermine-sri-lankan-protests/">social media campaigns</a> have frequently targeted minorities like Tamils and Muslims.</p>
<p>“The current protest movement’s focus on the commonality of experience, while understandable, does little to reassure Tamils and Muslims that they are safe from ethnic scapegoating for the country’s economic woes,” Mario Arulthas, a doctoral candidate studying Tamils and nationalism at SOAS University of London, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/4/5/sri-lanka-gota-needs-to-go-but-so-does-the-ethnocratic-state">wrote in a recent column</a>. Such scapegoating is “a tactic the state has historically used as a distraction during times of crisis, resulting in pogroms against these communities.”</p>
<p>As Sri Lanka goes forward, its citizens will confront not only the aftermath of the economic crisis, but these legacies of suspicion among ethnic groups.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andreas Johansson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The country has a long history of ethnic and religious conflict, but the worst economic crisis in decades has brought protesters together.Andreas Johansson, Researcher at Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Lund University, Senior Lecture at Karlstad University, Lund UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1143032019-03-31T09:11:15Z2019-03-31T09:11:15ZHow South African churches can make LGBTIQ people feel safer<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266389/original/file-20190328-139345-yavxni.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South African churches still have a long way to go in accepting queer worshipers. Supplied by author</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied by author</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Research shows that many churches in South Africa remain <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-masiiwa-ragies-gunda/silent-no-longer_a_21702919/">“hotbeds of homophobia”</a>. This is despite the fact that the country has enshrined LGBTIQ rights in its constitution and was the first African country to legalise <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2006-12-21-same-sex-marriages-what-next">same sex marriage</a> - in 2016. </p>
<p>But there’s still a gap between the law and social norms. This is visible in the country’s churches too. These tensions were underscored in a recent court case when the country’s High Court <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAGPPHC/2019/52.html">handed down</a> a <a href="https://constitutionallyspeaking.co.za/why-court-ruled-against-dutch-reformed-church-in-same-sex-marriage-case-and-what-it-may-mean-for-other-churches-who-discriminate-against-gays-and-lesbians/">judgment</a> in support of the 12, predominantly queer, plaintiffs from the country’s biggest Afrikaans-based church – the Dutch Reformed Church. The 12 had contested the controversial <a href="https://www.mambaonline.com/2016/11/11/ng-kerk-backs-away-sex-unions-disgusting-decision/">2016 reversal</a> of their Synod’s 2015 progressive decision to allow ministers in a same-sex relationship to be ordained, and to be allowed to carry out same-sex weddings. </p>
<p>In 2016, theologian Gerald West suggested that <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2016-12-07-00-a-queer-thing-is-going-on-in-southern-africas-churches">“a queer thing is happening in South African churches” </a> with a vocal minority of local congregations and theologians seeking full inclusion. However most churches could do much more to become accommodating, safe spaces that are inclusive and nurturing. In doing so, they’d be showing a <a href="https://theotherfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ProgPrudes_Report_d5.pdf">similar attitude shift</a> that research in 2016 has found in wider South African society.</p>
<p>We have done research at the <a href="http://blogs.sun.ac.za/urdr/">Unit for Religion and Development Research</a> to understand, document and share positive lessons learned from LGBTIQ people, ministers and other congregants within these ‘vocal minority’ churches. The <a href="https://blogs.sun.ac.za/urdr/new-lgbtiq-report-from-exclusion-to-embrace/">findings</a> show that despite a deadlock at the top levels of many traditional denominations, at local level some congregations are bravely creating alternative models where LGBTIQ people and their partners can feel safe and be accepted. </p>
<h2>The research</h2>
<p>The research focuses on eighteen in-depth interviews with ministers and long term members within five local congregations in the city of Cape Town. Four congregations offer an alternative to their wider denomination’s non-inclusive stance by advocating full LGBTIQ inclusion. These safer spaces remain a “minority” church position. But they are nevertheless offering creative ways of doing theology from below. Instead of waiting for their whole denomination to change, they are taking the lead by educating their members on the need for an inclusive stance. </p>
<p>My findings offer lessons on which LGBTIQ civil society organisations that work with churches, such as <a href="https://sacd.christians.co.za/CaptureOrgDisplay.aspx?oid=495">Inclusive and Affirming Ministries</a>, and <a href="http://theotherfoundation.org/">The Other Foundation</a> can build their activism.</p>
<p>The five congregations in which I did my research were geographically, linguistically and racially diverse. They included suburban, inner city, and township congregations serving Afrikaans, isiXhosa and English-speaking communities as well as migrants from other African countries. </p>
<p>Four of the congregations were attached to traditional denominations – <a href="http://www.unitedcongregational.org/">United Congregational Church</a>, <a href="http://unitingpresbyterian.org/">Uniting Presbyterian Church</a>, <a href="https://methodist.org.za/">Methodist Church of Southern Africa</a>, <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2074-77052017000100038">Dutch Reformed Church</a>. One, <a href="http://www.goodhopemcc.org/">Good Hope Metropolitan Community Church</a>, was an LGBTIQ-specific denomination.</p>
<p>The study explored a number of core themes: church ethos, leadership, theology, visibility, advocacy, challenges and opportunities. It identified 10 promising practices emerging from the congregations’s experiences and the LGBTIQ voices among them.</p>
<h2>The findings</h2>
<p>The LGBTIQ people I interviewed said that some of their previous churches claimed to be welcoming, but that this wasn’t true in practice. They said they often got strange looks when they went to church with a same-sex partner or stepped up to the pulpit. On top of this they were often unable to celebrate important moments such as marriage and baptism. </p>
<p>Yet, all said that they had found genuine acceptance – personally and theologically – in their current local congregations which many had joined after bad experiences elsewhere.</p>
<p>From my interviews I learnt that the way in which Scripture is interpreted plays a key role in building welcoming environments. Instead of sticking to the various “terror texts” such as <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+18%3A22&version=NIV">Leviticus 18 verse 22</a> that have been used to suggest that only heterosexual sex is natural in God’s eyes, these churches had elected instead to highlight the human dignity of all God’s people.</p>
<p>Other promising practices we identified included:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Focusing on the talents of LGBTIQ people and what positive contribution they could make to the church;</p></li>
<li><p>Developing positive theologies that celebrate diversity and inclusion, in line with Jesus’s teachings;</p></li>
<li><p>Using a social justice lens that doesn’t see LGBTIQ issues in isolation;</p></li>
<li><p>Identifying courageous church leaders who can open up safe spaces for LGBTI people; and</p></li>
<li><p>Avoiding “double talk” where LGBTIQ orientation is “accepted” but is not allowed to be practised.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>These interventions resulted in a number of LGBTIQ people explaining how they were able to end years of exclusion or compulsory counselling by moving to a congregation where they were accepted and could be involved in leadership.</p>
<p>As one lesbian congregant put it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The big shift was me accepting that I was okay, born in love, by love and for love … the biggest revelation I have ever had. I do not have to be ashamed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These stories offer valuable lessons for other churches. The church ministers we interviewed said that fear of losing congregants or their job often lay behind a refusal to change. One minister noted that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>many ministers do not want to crucify themselves at the altar of human sexuality to a point where they lose an income. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Setting an example</h2>
<p>This study shows that alternative congregations do exist as safe spaces where LGBTIQ people can flourish. More congregations and denominations could follow their lead to make churches a welcoming space for all.</p>
<p>To download a copy of the full research report entitled From Exclusion to Embrace - click <a href="http://blogs.sun.ac.za/urdr/files/2019/03/FromExclusiontoEmbraceResearchReport.April2019.pdf">here</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114303/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Selina Palm works for the Unit for Religion and Development and is the author of this research report. She is a member of one of the church congregations researched. This study received some funds from The Other Foundation</span></em></p>At local level some congregations are bravely creating alternative models where LGBTIQ people can feel safe and be acceptedSelina Palm, Senior Researcher, Unit for Religion and Development Research, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/903442018-03-02T11:20:57Z2018-03-02T11:20:57ZHow to overcome religious prejudice among refugees<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208463/original/file-20180301-152552-1bux1ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Syrian refugees arrive to start a new life in Germany. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/home">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I met Amer *, a young Syrian Druze refugee, at a smoke-filled cafe in the Berlin borough of <a href="http://www.middleeasteye.net/in-depth/features/berlin-s-arab-street-melting-pot-where-hipsters-flock-and-falafel-flourishes">Neukölln</a>. “Before the war,” he told me, “no one would care if you were a Muslim, Christian, Druze, or anything else. I am Syrian. We are all Syrian. But now, people want to know what your religion is and then they will act differently towards you. This is the problem.”</p>
<p>I’ve heard many statements like these over the course of <a href="https://ucl.academia.edu/KatEghdamian">my research</a> on the experiences of Syrian refugees from religious minority backgrounds. Whether in <a href="https://www.kirkensnodhjelp.no/en/about-nca/publications/publications/the-protection-needs-of-minorities-from-syria-and-iraq/">Turkey</a>, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jrs/article/30/3/447/2566846">Jordan</a>, or now in Germany, where I am currently doing research, I’m finding a growing divide among Syrian refugees on the basis of religion – or of <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/02/2013225165410892976.html">sectarianism</a>. </p>
<p>There has been much attention across Europe on the religious intolerance and prejudices held by <a href="https://www.dailysabah.com/europe/2017/12/26/far-right-violence-against-refugees-persists-in-germany">far-right</a> political parties and other groups <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/how-can-we-blunt-prejudice-against-immigrants">towards refugees</a>. But religious prejudice is also a feature and challenge of relations between refugees – and this must be better understood if it is to be overcome. </p>
<h2>Attacks in refugee centres</h2>
<p>In 2016, at a Düsseldorf refugee centre, lunch was served during the Ramadan month of fasting. A dispute ensued and two refugees <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36469022">burned down the hall</a> in protest, later <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/refugee-in-court-accused-of-fire-at-asylum-center/a-37145018">standing trial</a> for the religiously motivated crime. Later in 2016, a <a href="https://www.opendoors.de/sites/default/files/Open_Doors_survey_Lack_of_protection_for_religious_minorities_in_Germany_2016_10_0.pdf">report</a> revealed other accounts of attacks on religious minority refugees, particularly against converts to Christianity, in refugee centres across Germany. </p>
<p>People I interviewed told me of harassment they had experienced from other refugees, sometimes for religious reasons. Often the accounts may seem subtle – from a young Christian woman questioned by a Muslim woman as to why she was not wearing a veil. Or a Muslim man telling another Muslim that he is “kafir” (an infidel) for eating pork. Those refugees who have faced such harassment, however, experience significant discomfort and insecurity from these incidents. </p>
<p>In other cases, refugees in Jordan, Turkey, and Germany told me they had experienced overt acts of intolerance, including physical attacks for wearing a religious symbol, such as a cross, or for not attending prayer services. </p>
<p>Muslim refugees have also been subjected to harassment and discrimination by both <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/attacks-on-german-muslims-becoming-more-violent/a-40152226">members of host societies</a> and other refugees. Ambar*, a young Syrian Christian refugee woman living in Kreuzberg, Berlin, recounted an incident that happened when she first arrived in Germany and lived in a refugee centre. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This one time, I wanted to come inside a building and the guard just let me in. Behind me was a girl wearing a hijab though. She tried to walk through too, just like me, but she was yelled at and told to come back. Then they checked her bag and everything. So, in this moment, I thought, wow, she could hate me. Because we get treated differently. I will never forget this moment and how she looked at me. She was crying. I had no choice but to just walk away.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some of the hosts and refugees I interviewed also expressed intolerance towards and about Syrian Muslim refugees. These included false assumptions about their levels of education and social class, and their likelihood to commit violence or terrorism. Others simply presumed Syrian Muslim refugees would be politically aligned to the conservative Salafi branch of Islam. </p>
<p>There has also been a tendency among Muslim refugees to presume that others have certain ideological and religious identities. A former Ismaili Muslim refugee, who has turned atheist, spoke to me in Berlin about the harassment he experienced in a refugee centre for not attending prayers and for choosing not to fast during Ramadan. “Yes, I am from Raqqa, but people think that must mean I am Muslim and, even more, they think I must be with Daesh (Islamic State)”, he said. “But people forget, my city has been destroyed. I am not with any group, and I no longer believe (in God).”</p>
<h2>Intolerance is not inevitable</h2>
<p>In both Jordan and Germany, I’ve heard suggestions, especially from a few Christian organisations working with refugees, that it would be better, safer, and easier if refugees were separated on the basis of religion. This is a dangerous suggestion and thankfully, rarely implemented. Other than in cases of immediate safety and protection needs, separating refugees solely on the basis of religion – whether in refugee camps, centres or elsewhere – is an assured way of exacerbating differences and entrenching sectarian tensions. </p>
<p>Some refugees themselves now believe that there is no choice but to live separately from other refugees of different religious backgrounds. But this is based on a perpetuated falsehood that different religious identities are inevitably intolerant of each other. This is a divisive narrative that is being misused and manipulated. Such a misconception lays the groundwork for incitement of hatred and the dire consequences that come with it. </p>
<p>There is a breadth of diversity in Syria and among Syrian refugees – from the moderate Sunni who chooses not to observe the fast to the Ismaili who is an atheist. Religion may be an important factor for some and entirely irrelevant to another. </p>
<p>To counteract prejudice, hosts and refugees from different backgrounds must mix together more. They should share their experiences and be given opportunities to create and practice solidarity. This is not a naive ideal but a sorely needed practice – and there are some examples of it <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/how-can-we-blunt-prejudice-against-immigrants">working positively</a> for refugees. </p>
<p>Intolerance among different groups of people should be treated as an abnormality, not an inevitability. There is nothing inevitable about Syrian refugee tensions – let alone other relations between refugees from different countries and backgrounds. There is no predisposition to violence or hatred by any group of people – and any such assumption must be overturned. </p>
<p>* <em>Names have been changed to protect identities.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90344/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kat Eghdamian receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).</span></em></p>Refugees hold religious prejudices against each other too – separating them by religion is not the answer.Kat Eghdamian, Religion, Forced Migration, and Minority Rights Researcher, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/855042017-10-18T15:06:31Z2017-10-18T15:06:31ZWhy Islamist attack demands a careful response from Mozambique<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190361/original/file-20171016-30979-10vz4fa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mozambique's military responded swiftly following deadly attacks by Islamist gunmen on three police stations recently.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Juda Ngwenya</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the early hours of 5 October 2017 a group of <a href="http://clubofmozambique.com/news/armed-men-attack-police-stations-in-mocimboa-da-praia-aim-report/">30 men attacked three police stations</a> in Mocimboa da Praia, a small <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moc%C3%ADmboa_da_Praia">town</a> of 30,000 inhabitants in Northern Mozambique. They killed two policemen, stole arms and ammunition, and occupied the town. </p>
<p>They told local people they would not hurt them, that their fight was with the state and the police. They explained that they rejected state health and education and refused to pay taxes. The local population calls these men <a href="http://clubofmozambique.com/news/individuals-allegedly-linked-to-al-shabaab-attack-police-station-in-mocimboa-da-praia-mozambique/">“Al-Shabaabs”</a>.</p>
<p>Mozambique’s government’s response was swift. It fought back with forces from other districts and special forces from the provincial capital. The battle <a href="http://clubofmozambique.com/news/life-returns-to-normal-in-mocimboa-da-praia/">lasted several hours and left 16 dead</a>, including two policemen and a community leader.</p>
<p>The attack came as a shock to a country already grappling with <a href="http://clubofmozambique.com/news/2017-war-hidden-debts-economic-stabilisation-carry-next-year-mozambique/">major economic and political problems</a>. The incident is the first confirmed Islamist armed attack in Mozambique.</p>
<p>Information is still sparse and confused. But for now, we can say with some degree of certainty that what happened on 5 October 2017 was not a Somali Al-Shabaab attack nor an externally driven <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201710060373.html">international Jihadi plot</a>. Nor was it a state <a href="https://www.facebook.com/unai.kambuma.matsangaisse/posts/522924458056358">conspiracy </a>as some had suggested. </p>
<p>Rather, the attack appears to have been carried out by a group of local young Muslims who formed a sect in 2014 in Mocimboa da Praia which is known as <a href="http://opais.sapo.mz/index.php/sociedade/45-sociedade/46966-jovens-radicais-sonham-com-califado-em-mocimboa-da-praia.html">“Al-Shabaab”</a>. The group controls two mosques in the town and have told their followers to stop sending their children to secular institutions such as state schools and hospitals. It wants Sharia law applied in their area. </p>
<p>The fact that this first Islamist attack was carried out by Mozambicans makes the event no less shocking, particularly in a country proud of its sound and relaxed inter-religious relations. Until we get more information on the group and what triggered it to attack the state, it’s worth setting the incident within a historical context. </p>
<h2>Islam in Mozambique</h2>
<p>Islam has a very old presence in Mozambique, particularly on the coast and in the Northern parts of the country. Various Sultanates and Sheikdom existed before Portugal occupied the territory in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Mozambique/Colonial-Mozambique">late 19th Century</a> .</p>
<p>The Portuguese colonialists openly and officially favoured Catholicism, at a time <a href="http://www.lusotopie.sciencespobordeaux.fr/alpers.pdf">repressing Islam</a> and other religions. But Islam gained converts and nonetheless grew. By the time of <a href="https://www.pambazuka.org/governance/mozambique%E2%80%99s-40-years-independence-past-and-present-challenges">independence in 1975</a> Muslims officially accounted for 13% of the population. The 1997 census gave the figure of 17.8%. Both figures are contested by Muslims who believe them to be higher.</p>
<p>After independence the Liberation Front of Mozambique (Frelimo) adopted Marxist-Leninism. It attacked all faiths, but Islam was particularly affected. It was a faith most state leaders didn’t understand. This was evident in incidents such as President Samora Machel keeping his shoes when he walked into the main mosque in the country. <a href="https://www.academia.edu/723143/_Lislam_au_Mozambique_apr%C3%A8s_lind%C3%A9pendance_Histoire_dune_mont%C3%A9e_en_puissance_in_Christian_Coulon_ed._LAfrique_politique_2002_Islams_dAfrique_entre_le_local_et_le_global_Paris_Karthala_2002._p._123-146">Another example</a> was the government insisting on pigsties being built in Muslim areas in the name of “development”. Memories such as these are still raw and were raised yet again after the Mocimboa da Praia attack.</p>
<p>After Frelimo abandoned Marxism-Leninism and shifted to multiparty democracy, the party began courting all religions to gain electoral support. But tensions still arose from time to time. One involved the government taking steps to officially recognise Islamic holidays. This sparked a crisis in parliament in 1996 and the Frelimo governing party backtracked, adopting a more secular approach from then on. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.academia.edu/5854764/_The_1996_Muslim_holiday_affair._Religious_competition_and_state_mediation_in_contemporary_Mozambique_Journal_of_Southern_African_Studies_26_3_2000_pp._409-27">incident</a> served to remind Muslims that they still felt marginalised.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.lusotopie.sciencespobordeaux.fr/alpers.pdf">Islam is overwhelmingly Sufi in Mozambique</a>, with a majority of Muslims belonging to different Turuq (brotherhoods). <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-islam-so-different-in-different-countries-51804">Sufism</a> represents the more mystical side of Islam - opposed by scripturalist Muslims, such as the Wahhabi, who accuse them of deviating from the Koran.</p>
<p>The return of African graduates from Saudi Arabia in the 1970s gave political clout to the reformist and scripturalist movements in Mozambique. They gained control of some mosques and, in collaboration with the Portuguese, expanded their presence. </p>
<p>Today the main national organisation is the reformist <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Conselho-Islamico-de-Mocambique-CISLAMO-169928693058683/">Islamic Council</a> which was created after independence by Wahhabi elements and grew in the 1980s and 1990s in partnership with the authorities. </p>
<p>Splinter organisations appeared in the late 1990s and 2000s, particularly in Northern Mozambique. As reformism gained firmer ground in the north, tensions and conflict increased. Controversies emerged in relation to sufi practices, alcohol, education and dress code. There was, however, never any violence against the state.</p>
<h2>Powder keg</h2>
<p>Although no international terror group has been linked to Mocimba da Praia, the incident is very serious. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabo_Delgado_Province">Cabo Delgado</a> is a Muslim-majority province where discoveries of giant oil and gas reserves have brought international conglomerates and their private security, making the area a potential powder-keg.</p>
<p>On top of this, the area is desperately poor. Northern areas of Mozambique have gained little from the economic boom of the 2000s. Mocimboa da Praia is a case in point: little development has been seen even as expectations exploded following the discovery of massive gas and oil reserves in the province. <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/mozambique-gas/mozambique-sees-30-bln-investment-for-2018-lng-exports-startup-idUSL5N0QR49C20140821">Billions of dollars</a> have been invested in offshore drilling, with little benefit to local communities.</p>
<p>The government must devise a careful and well-thought response to this new Islamist threat. Downplaying the affair as “banditry” and dealing only with the sect when it’s clear that there are broader religious and social dynamics at play risks seeing the problem reemerge elsewhere. </p>
<p>In turn, going for an all-out repression to eradicate the “Islamist threat” could radicalise other Muslims and root the problem deeper and more widely – think only of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marc_Antoine_Montclos/publication/280592679_Boko_Haram_and_politics_from_insurgency_to_terrorism/links/56c47b8908aeeeffa9e5b663.pdf">Boko Haram in West Africa in 2009</a>. </p>
<p>So far state officials have been careful and moderate in their <a href="http://opais.sapo.mz/index.php/sociedade/45-sociedade/46980-vida-e-seguranca-voltam-a-normalidade-em-mocimboa-da-praia.html">statements</a>. But practice on the ground needs to follow the same line and some changes in social and religious policy will need to follow.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85504/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Morier-Genoud does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The first Islamist attack carried out by Mozambicans in the country is particularly surprising given the pride the country takes in its sound and relaxed inter-religious relations.Eric Morier-Genoud, Lecturer in African history, Queen's University BelfastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/804242017-07-10T15:23:08Z2017-07-10T15:23:08ZWatershed judgment clarifies limits of religion in South Africa’s public schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177302/original/file-20170707-3035-rdfj7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">School children wave a South African flag after visiting the Nelson Mandela house museum in Soweto.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Henry Romero </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="https://theconversation.com/solomonic-wisdom-needed-to-settle-tiff-over-god-in-south-africas-public-schools-77202">High Court</a> in South Africa recently handed down a landmark ruling with far-reaching implications for religion in the country’s public schools. The court decided that a school may not promote a single religion, or brand itself as such. This means that a school cannot, for example, call itself a Christian school. </p>
<p>The case was brought by an education lobby group – the Organisasie vir Godsdienste-onderrig en Demokrasie <a href="https://www.ogod.org.za/">OGOD</a> – which <a href="https://theconversation.com/solomonic-wisdom-needed-to-settle-tiff-over-god-in-south-africas-public-schools-77202">challenged</a> the fact that six public schools had identified themselves as Christian. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.gov.za/documents/constitution/chapter-2-bill-rights#15">country’s constitution</a>, religious observances can take place at state institutions - including public schools - provided it’s done equitably and that attendance is voluntary. </p>
<p>The court acknowledged this, <a href="http://www.saflii.org.za/za/cases/ZAGPJHC/2017/160.html">ruling</a> that religious observances, including praying, are distinct from the religious ethos of a school and are, therefore, to be allowed at public schools subject to the requirements of the Constitution. </p>
<p>The confirmation of the constitutional right to religious observances in public schools is a celebration of South Africa’s unique relationship between religion and state. The court’s judgment recognises that <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0318/P03182013.pdf">religion plays a large role</a> in South African society. As such, the right to follow a religion is embedded both in the country’s Constitution as well as in practice. This means that South Africa isn’t a secular state. As the judge pointed out: it wasn’t the courts responsibility to pick sides between those who are religious and those who are not.</p>
<p>According to the country’s <a href="http://www.gov.za/sites/www.gov.za/files/religion_0.pdf">policy on religion and education</a> a secular state adopts a position of impartiality towards religion and other worldviews. It also represents an attempt to “completely divorce the religious and secular spheres of a society, such as in France or the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment">United States</a>”. This is not the case in South Africa.</p>
<p>The court also upheld <a href="http://causeforjustice.org/religion-in-public-schools-the-high-court-has-ruled-now-what/">the right of school governing bodies</a> to draft the religious policies for their schools in line with the <a href="https://www.gdeadmissions.gov.za/Content/Files/SchoolsAct.pdf">Schools Act</a> and the Constitution. </p>
<p>This is a watershed ruling in South Africa. The judgment has provided South African courts with the unique opportunity to interpret religious freedom in the public school system beyond just religious observances. </p>
<p>And although the case only involved six public schools with a Christian ethos, it will <a href="https://forsa.org.za/ogod-vs-laerskool-randhart-and-others-case-update/">affect all 24,000 public schools</a> in the country. All public schools will have to review their policies on religion to be in line with the decision. Public schools, whether branding itself as religious or not, will have to scrutinise how it deals with religious diversity. </p>
<p>In general, the case offered wins and losses for both sides. Although school governing bodies maintain their institutional authority to draft religious policies, the ruling means that they will now be under greater scrutiny. On the other hand, the organisation that brought the case got the legal backing it needed to require public schools to stay away from a single faith ethos. </p>
<h2>Lost opportunity</h2>
<p>The court affirmed the idea of celebrating diversity in South Africa and that public schools with a single faith ethos can hamper this. It balanced the right not to be excluded with the <a href="http://www.gov.za/documents/constitution/chapter-2-bill-rights#15">constitutional value of diversity</a>. Hence its concern with public schools maintaining a single faith ethos. </p>
<p>But the case was rather disappointing in its superficial to zero analysis of human dignity, equality, religious freedom and diversity – all enshrined in the country’s constitution. The court only gave a short analysis of diversity, dedicating most of its decision to technical matters. </p>
<p>For example, having declared that South Africa was not a secular state, the court failed to analyse and discuss what religious diversity should look like in a “non-secular” state specifically. No deeper analysis was done about the meaning of diversity in the South African context. It was merely reiterated that, as declared in past court decisions and the Constitution, South Africa should celebrate diversity. </p>
<p>The nature of the right to religious freedom and the notion of “equity” received limited attention. The court therefore missed a wonderful opportunity to provide a critical analysis of the importance of religious diversity and religious freedom in the country.</p>
<p>For a case that is to directly affect more than 24,000 public schools and hundreds of thousands of pupils and teachers, one would have expected a more careful analysis. A critical discussion on the meaning of diversity when it comes to religion would have been useful and timely. </p>
<p>In some sense, the broader South African society lost. A critical analysis of the constitutional issues like diversity would have given the court’s final decision due weight and made it more credible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80424/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Georgia Alida du Plessis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The judgment recognises that religion plays a large role in South African society. The right to follow a religion is embedded in the constitution. This means that South Africa isn’t a secular state.Georgia Alida du Plessis, Research Fellow in Public Law, University of the Free StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/781552017-06-01T01:57:06Z2017-06-01T01:57:06ZWhy Jefferson’s vision of American Islam matters today<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171506/original/file-20170530-23660-blxvj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Thomas Jefferson memorial in Washington, DC.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/9976931385/in/photolist-gcCo7n-gn8vcG-e327Md-e2VreV-e326Lq-4oQL9q-EZCTf-EZDLK-8Rswwu-e2VpHZ-e2VrHr-gcD5Ck-e32717-gcCoN2-e324Q7-e2Vqwz-e2Vrwe-e2VqK2-e2VoFn-26a89X-4peHXn-iFrRb1-btnZt3-5FA3aN-7HcC8u-5zHADQ-7ARNf4-7ktSZ6-exu9bU-exqGMB-exqLoF-exu3yy-exu4YQ-exqt7n-extNtW-extLij-exque4-extQVJ-6kNN9R-odKAEy-exu5Qd-extYrN-extGUQ-exqP6e-extVHs-exr4Bc-exr1uc-exqym4-exqAS6-exqCPR">Gage Skidmore</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The new Congress includes its first two Muslim women members. One of them, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, considered getting sworn in privately using a copy of the Qur'an from the library of one of America’s Founding Fathers.</p>
<p>She <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/03/politics/rashida-tlaib-breaking-barriers/index.html">told CNN</a> this shows “Islam has been part of American history for a long time.” I explored this little-known history in my book <a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/170879/thomas-jeffersons-quran-by-denise-a-spellberg/9780307388391/">“Thomas Jefferson’s Qur'an: Islam and the Founders”</a>.</p>
<h2>Islam, an American religion</h2>
<p>Muslims arrived in North America as early as the 17th century, eventually composing 15 to 30 percent of the <a href="http://www.theroot.com/african-slaves-were-the-1st-to-celebrate-ramadan-in-ame-1790876253">enslaved West African population</a> of British America. (Muslims from the Middle East did not begin to immigrate here as free citizens until the late 19th century.) Even key American Founding Fathers demonstrated a marked interest in the faith and its practitioners, most notably Thomas Jefferson. </p>
<p>As a 22-year-old law student in Williamsburg, Virginia, <a href="https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/quran">Jefferson bought a Qur’an</a> – 11 years before drafting the Declaration of Independence. </p>
<p>The purchase is symbolic of a longer historical connection between American and Islamic worlds, and a more inclusive view of the nation’s early, robust view of religious pluralism.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171508/original/file-20170530-23656-yzcaus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171508/original/file-20170530-23656-yzcaus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171508/original/file-20170530-23656-yzcaus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171508/original/file-20170530-23656-yzcaus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171508/original/file-20170530-23656-yzcaus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171508/original/file-20170530-23656-yzcaus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171508/original/file-20170530-23656-yzcaus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jefferson purchased a Qur'an much before drafting the Declaration of Independence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/thegreatshadow/262245901/in/photolist-pb5z4-5XfcXM-rBhT-a8N378-91aRcL-nXh13M-7gM5Fy-a31oEu-9LxaJN-fwRG3V-3rE9g-6T8Tma-5cUHnr-a8N2f2-a8N2BK-a8MZKT-CCeMe-5Vu9sp-fEyRFX-hSneYW-CLgmp6-bmY5Gu-8VMBAZ-5tCVjB-RiVRAE-bUiB4q-g23JhP-ai5nPC-BcaCi-8nmcUb-o62hYr-DVJBX-cB3Mco-DVJFZ-hNVGpk-dGEGTX-N6Gdf-9b1vm4-5AfUn-g7y8cP-55cpW-frAujP-iHUQ-2gK3Y-4k55vj-8BLQy-nY8mnX-fsS7a-pPZFpD-98phSQ">SSk Graphy</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although Jefferson did not leave any notes on his immediate reaction to the Qur’an, he did criticize Islam as <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Rzxlz64cRiUC&pg=PT134&lpg=PT134&dq=jefferson+islam+stifling+free+enquiry&source=bl&ots=vZ5mMQCqBt&sig=EjbI3c84tPpi-lEYxiDFi6-A6TM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiGhKn7oITUAhUL6IMKHWCUDvMQ6AEILzAC#v=onepage&q=jefferson%20islam%20stifling%20free%20enquiry&f=false">“stifling free enquiry”</a> in his early political debates in Virginia, a charge he also leveled against Catholicism. He thought both religions fused religion and the state at a time he wished to separate them in his commonwealth.</p>
<p>Despite his criticism of Islam, Jefferson supported the rights of its adherents. Evidence exists that Jefferson <a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/10/05/our_founding_fathers_included_islam/">had been thinking privately</a> about Muslim inclusion in his new country since 1776. A few months after penning the Declaration of Independence, he returned to Virginia to draft legislation about religion for his native state, writing in his private notes a paraphrase of the English philosopher John Locke’s 1689 <a href="http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0205/tolerance.html">“Letter on Toleration”</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“[he] says neither Pagan nor Mahometan [Muslim] nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the commonwealth because of his religion.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The precedents Jefferson copied from Locke echo strongly in his Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, <a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-02-02-0132-0004-0082">which proclaims</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“(O)ur civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The statute, drafted in 1777, which <a href="http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Virginia_Statute_for_Establishing_Religious_Freedom_1786#">became law in 1786</a>, inspired the Constitution’s “no religious test” clause and the First Amendment. </p>
<h2>Jefferson’s pluralistic vision</h2>
<p>Was Jefferson thinking about Muslims when he drafted his famed Virginia legislation? </p>
<p>Indeed, we find evidence for this in the Founding Father’s 1821 autobiography, where he happily recorded that a final attempt to add the words “Jesus Christ” to the preamble of his legislation failed. And this failure led Jefferson to affirm that he had intended the application of the Statute to be “universal.” </p>
<p>By this he meant that religious liberty and political equality would not be exclusively Christian. For Jefferson <a href="http://tjrs.monticello.org/letter/1399">asserted in his autobiography</a> that his original legislative intent had been “to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan [Muslim], the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination.” </p>
<p>By defining Muslims as future citizens in the 18th century, in conjunction with a resident Jewish minority, Jefferson expanded his “universal” legislative scope to include every one of every faith.</p>
<p>Ideas about the nation’s religiously plural character were tested also in Jefferson’s presidential foreign policy with the Islamic powers of North Africa. President Jefferson welcomed the first Muslim ambassador, who hailed from Tunis, to the White House in 1805. Because it was Ramadan, the president moved the state dinner from 3:30 p.m. to be <a href="https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/tunisian-envoy">“precisely at sunset,”</a> a recognition of the Tunisian ambassador’s religious beliefs, if not quite America’s first official celebration of Ramadan. </p>
<p>Muslims once again provide a litmus test for the civil rights of all U.S. believers. Today, Muslims are fellow citizens and members of Congress, and their legal rights represent an American founding ideal still besieged by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/05/20/i-think-islam-hates-us-a-timeline-of-trumps-comments-about-islam-and-muslims/">fear mongering,</a> precedents at odds with the best of our ideals of universal religious freedom.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78155/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denise A. Spellberg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The first two Muslim-American women are in Congress now. They stand in a long and little-known tradition of Islam in America.Denise A. Spellberg, Professor of History and Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/781152017-05-26T13:56:39Z2017-05-26T13:56:39ZFighting for your knife: law, religion and parmesan in multicultural Italy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170999/original/file-20170525-23232-zlgtep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/amritsar-india-april-30-sikh-pilgrims-55460392">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On May 15 2017, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Supreme-Court-of-Cassation">Italian Court of Cassation</a>, the highest court of appeal, issued a <a href="http://www.italgiure.giustizia.it/xway/application/nif/clean/hc.dll?verbo=attach&db=snpen&id=./20170515/snpen@s10@a2017@n24084@tS.clean.pdf">verdict</a> ruling that Sikh men in Italy cannot carry the <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/what-is-a-kirpan-1.1101486">kirpan</a>, the sacred dagger that represents one of the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/sikhism/customs/fiveks.shtml">five holy customs</a> Sikhs must observe.</p>
<p>The appeal had been lodged by Jatinder Singh, a 32-year old Indian living and working in Goito, in the northern Italian province of Mantova. Singh – part of a Sikh community which is essential to Italy’s Parmesan industry –- was ordered to pay €2,000 when local police stopped him and confiscated his kirpan because of a <a href="http://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/1990/03/31/090A1505/">law that prohibits</a> the carrying of knives and weapons outside one’s house without a legitimate reason. </p>
<p>But in their verdict, the judges did not just act on the basis of Italy’s legal system. Crucially, they also ventured into unchartered terrain by commenting on how Italian society should look and what its culture and values should be – something that must be a matter of political debate, not decided in strictly legal terms.</p>
<p>Today, more than <a href="https://www.allaboutsikhs.com/world-gurudwaras/gurudwaras-in-italy">60,000 Sikhs live in Italy</a>, the second-largest community in Europe after the UK. They are mainly concentrated in Italy’s northern provinces, where the hot humid climate and flat rural landscape <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Punjab,+India/@30.9988703,70.9162072,6z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x391964aa569e7355:0x8fbd263103a38861!8m2!3d31.1471305!4d75.3412179">resemble Punjab</a>, the Indian region which most of the Sikhs come from.</p>
<p>Farmers in India, these Sikhs also become farmers in Italy and are employed particularly in one of the country’s most famous cheese-making industries: <a href="http://www.cheese.com/parmesan/">Parmesan</a>. Once the produce of a solely Italian labour force, the industry now relies on immigrant workers, like many other European countries. In 2015, the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33149580">BBC reported</a> local producers saying that if it were not for the hardworking Sikhs rising at 4am to milk cows twice a day, seven days a week, Italy’s Parmesan production would be at risk.</p>
<p>The verdict of the Court of Cassation shocked the Sikh community, which regards itself as peaceful and well integrated in Italy. So it’s not surprising that they are now contemplating <a href="http://milano.repubblica.it/cronaca/2017/05/17/news/migranti_cassazione_valori_coltello_sikh-165610991/?ref=RHPPLF-BH-I0-C4-P4-S1.4-F4&refresh_ce">various responses</a>, from an appeal to the <a href="https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/Jo2_6999/en/">European Court of Justice</a> to the most drastic one of all: leaving the country.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171008/original/file-20170525-23227-mn0m4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171008/original/file-20170525-23227-mn0m4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171008/original/file-20170525-23227-mn0m4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171008/original/file-20170525-23227-mn0m4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171008/original/file-20170525-23227-mn0m4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171008/original/file-20170525-23227-mn0m4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171008/original/file-20170525-23227-mn0m4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171008/original/file-20170525-23227-mn0m4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ceremonial swords and kirpan dagger are part of Sikh religious observance. The kirpan must be worn at all times.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hyderabadindiaapril-13-sikh-man-wait-weapons-624353372">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since the decision of the Court of Cassation, Sikh men in Italy now live in constant fear of being stopped and searched by the Italian police due to religious observance. So it is important to critically scrutinise the cultural reasons given by the judges in justifying their verdict. </p>
<h2>Common core</h2>
<p>Over the past few decades, as observed by political sociologist <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0010414001034004001">Christian Joppke</a>, courts of justice in various European countries and the USA have been instrumental in expanding immigrants’ rights with their verdicts, often against the restrictive measures put in place by national governments in relation to welfare programmes, civil service employment, professional licenses and scholarships. </p>
<p>Italy’s supreme court decision signals an important reversal of this trend. But it is not just a legal matter. And Italy is not the first country to forbid the wearing of the kirpan in Europe – Denmark already did so in <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/no-kirpan-for-sikhs-in-denmark/story-ADnqMMTcwA0rl6jQzNptbN.html">2006</a>. The most interesting aspect of the Italian verdict is the cultural justification the judges used to support their legal decision.</p>
<p>Shining a light on their arguments, the Court of Cassation starts with a fair appraisal of what at first sight might appear as the kind of statement that should characterise any culturally diverse society:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In a multi-ethnic society, the living together among subjects of different ethnicities necessarily requires the identification of a common core recognised by both the majority society and the immigrants.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Integration is a two-way process, which means the majority and minority communities experience a transformation and work together towards the shaping of the society of which they are all part.</p>
<h2>Western values</h2>
<p>But this was not exactly what the judges of the Court of Cassation had in mind. For them, integration struggles with an “insurmountable limit” in the “respect of human rights and of the legal framework of the hosting society”. In other words, immigrants must change and assimilate, Italy will not bend to accommodate all cultural or religious observances of immigrants.</p>
<p>Italy has its own law, which judges believe cannot be brought into question regardless of the demographic and cultural changes Italy has been experiencing for the past 30 years. So they maintain that “it is essential for the immigrant to conform his values to those of the Western world into which he has freely decided to incorporate himself”. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171002/original/file-20170525-23245-1rg2xi8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171002/original/file-20170525-23245-1rg2xi8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171002/original/file-20170525-23245-1rg2xi8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171002/original/file-20170525-23245-1rg2xi8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171002/original/file-20170525-23245-1rg2xi8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171002/original/file-20170525-23245-1rg2xi8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171002/original/file-20170525-23245-1rg2xi8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Without SIkh dairy workers, Italy’s Parmesan industry would be at risk.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bra-italy-september-18-2015-cut-332644646">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Besides the gender-bias tone, this carries two problematic points. First, there is no general agreement on what “Western values” are (and the very notion of West/Western is also open to debate, particularly in relation to its colonial legacy). Should a forward-looking society not list cultural and religious <a href="http://pluralism.org/what-is-pluralism/">pluralism</a> among these values? </p>
<p>Yet, the Italian Court of Cassation seems to instil doubt here. In another passage of their verdict, the judges talk of “the uniqueness of the cultural and legal fabric of our country”. Not much notion of cultural pluralism in that statement. Italy has a unique culture – and anyone who arrives on its shores simply has to fit into the Italian way of life.</p>
<h2>New Italians</h2>
<p>But here comes the zinger: what shall we make of all those Sikh Italians who did not migrate to Italy, but were born and grew up there? Unlike their parents, these people, clearly, did not “freely decided to incorporate” themselves into the country. They are not immigrants, but “new Italians”, as <a href="http://newitalians.eu/en/">my research</a> has largely documented. Unfortunately, by putting all the “diverse” people into the same basket, the Court of Cassation seems blind to the country’s changing population.</p>
<p>It is interesting to note that the court’s verdict has generated little political debate, including among the centre-left parties such as the <a href="https://www.partitodemocratico.it/">Partito Democratico</a> – traditionally more sensitive to immigrant issues. This seems to suggest that these parties in Italy, like elsewhere in Europe, share a form of immigrant incorporation which scholars call “civic integration”, that is, integration demanded on the basis of legal principles, but which in reality stands for the defence of the existing culture of the majority of Italians.</p>
<p>If it were not so serious, perhaps we could joke that losing Italy’s most famous cheese to a quarrel over a knife is really not worth it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78115/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marco Antonsich receives funding from European Commission - FP7 People.</span></em></p>As Italy confirms its ban on Sikhs carrying holy daggers, should the judiciary be deciding what our societies look like or what defines our cultural values?Marco Antonsich, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/759072017-05-24T17:58:08Z2017-05-24T17:58:08ZWhy it was once unthinkable for the president to be seen with the pope<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170865/original/file-20170524-31352-1je89kv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Trump stands beside Pope Francis at the Vatican on May 24, 2017. An unidentified priest looks on.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Trump-Pope-Francis/6c3d7b21a86b476e860cf461c1245000/7/0">Evan Vucci/AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The much-anticipated meeting between President Donald Trump and Pope Francis – the third stop on the first overseas trip of Trump’s presidency – proved successful. Reports from the Vatican note that after “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pope-welcomes-trump-at-the-vatican-despite-past-disagreements/2017/05/24/9b3381c6-4056-11e7-adba-394ee67a7582_story.html">some initial awkwardness”</a> the two men managed to exchange “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/world/europe/pope-trump-vatican-meet.html">smiles and pleasantries</a>,” even amid their well-documented disagreements on issues ranging from immigration to the environment.</p>
<p>That the two men could even manage such pleasantries seemed unthinkable a year ago.</p>
<p>In February 2016, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/02/18/pope-trump-is-not-christian-if-he-wants-to-build-a-wall-on-the-u-s-mexico-border/?utm_term=.e7b94935b387">the pope criticized</a> Trump’s central campaign pledge of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Francis suggested that Trump “is not a Christian if he said things like that.” </p>
<p>The response by Trump and his supporters moved the conversation beyond policy specifics. They raised the broader question of the pope’s involvement in politics. While reminding audiences that he is “proud to be a Christian,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/02/11/donald-trump-criticizes-pope-francis-as-very-political-for-mexico-trip/">Trump attacked</a> Francis for being a “very political person.” In the campaign’s suggestion that the pope was interfering in U.S. politics, some observers heard echoes of older religious bigotry. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/02/18/in-his-fight-with-pope-francis-donald-trump-is-bringing-anti-catholicism-back">One commentator wondered</a> if Trump was “bringing anti-Catholicism back.”</p>
<p>This was not an unreasonable question to ask.</p>
<p>As the author of <a href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100411860">“Saving Faith</a>,” a book on the efforts to develop a culture that respected religious pluralism in the United States a century ago, I recognize the issues at stake here: For the better part of a century, the GOP was the political home of anti-Catholicism in the U.S. </p>
<h2>History of anti-Catholicism</h2>
<p>During the late 19th century, <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/09/when-america-hated-catholics-213177">large numbers of Catholics</a> immigrated to the United States. Republicans frequently espoused open hostility to the newcomers. <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9780807848494/rum-romanism-and-rebellion/">In 1884</a>, a prominent supporter of the GOP’s presidential nominee denounced Democrats as the party of “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion.” Campaign rhetoric that year suggested that Catholics were a destabilizing force in American society.</p>
<p>More generally, observers proclaimed that Catholics maintained allegiance to the church first and to American values and institutions second. <a href="http://elections.harpweek.com/1876/cartoon-1876-large.asp?UniqueID=7">Anti-Catholic cartoons</a> suggested that Catholics would use political power to dismantle the nation’s institutions. This baseless fear had circulated in the U.S. since the arrival of Irish Catholics several decades earlier. It often <a href="http://books.wwnorton.com/books/Catholicism-and-American-Freedom/">centered on the belief</a> that Catholics, at the pope’s behest, would try to dismantle the nation’s public education systems. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170667/original/file-20170523-5757-rx9zpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170667/original/file-20170523-5757-rx9zpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170667/original/file-20170523-5757-rx9zpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170667/original/file-20170523-5757-rx9zpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170667/original/file-20170523-5757-rx9zpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170667/original/file-20170523-5757-rx9zpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170667/original/file-20170523-5757-rx9zpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Governor Alfred E. Smith after his nomination by the Democratic National Convention in Houston for the presidency.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Anti-Catholic rhetoric became especially heated when Catholics ran for public office. In 1928, Democrats nominated the first Catholic candidate for president, <a href="http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1495.html">Al Smith</a>. A wave of bigotry followed. As in the late 19th century, <a href="https://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/10/when-a-catholic-terrified-the-heartland/">critics argued</a> that the Catholic Church was too political. The Vatican would use a Catholic president as a way to meddle in U.S. politics.</p>
<p>Following Smith’s defeat, 32 years would pass before Democrats nominated another Roman Catholic candidate: John F. Kennedy. Before Kennedy won the close election, though, <a href="https://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/JFK-and-Religion.aspx">he also faced questions</a> about whether he was loyal to the U.S. or to the pope.</p>
<h2>Fighting anti-Catholicism</h2>
<p>Of course, it would be wrong to suggest that the GOP’s history is only one of anti-Catholicism. Even at the height of anti-Catholic bigotry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, prominent voices within the party offered an alternative.</p>
<p>As I discuss in <a href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100411860">my study of religious pluralism</a> in the early 20th century, some famous Republicans were among those who worked hardest to fight anti-Catholicism.</p>
<p>When he ran for president in 1896, William McKinley made outreach to Catholic voters a central part of his campaign. This was especially noteworthy because earlier in his career, McKinley had urged Republican candidates to target voters who “hate the Catholics.” Though they continued to overwhelmingly support Democrats, <a href="http://books.wwnorton.com/books/Catholicism-and-American-Freedom/">McKinley was the first GOP candidate</a> to make substantial inroads with Catholic voters.</p>
<p>Theodore Roosevelt, who became president when McKinley was assassinated in 1901, did even more to fight anti-Catholicism. Throughout his career, he published articles and speeches denouncing religious bigotry. According to Roosevelt, people who espoused anti-Catholic views were “<a href="http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/true-americanism-the-forum-magazine/">entirely un-American</a>.” The military hero and popular politician <a href="http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/images/research/speeches/trta.pdf">rejected</a> “any discrimination against or for a man because of his creed.”</p>
<h2>Bringing Catholics into the party</h2>
<p>Though it took decades after his death, Roosevelt’s perspective ultimately triumphed within the GOP. During the late 20th century, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/we-gather-together-9780199738984?cc=us&lang=en&">Catholic voters increasingly found common ground</a> with Republicans on social issues such as abortion and a commitment to fighting communism abroad. What had once been the party of anti-Catholicism <a href="http://cara.georgetown.edu/presidential%20vote%20only.pdf">regularly won the support</a> of nearly half of U.S. Catholics.</p>
<p>By 2016, the GOP had so expunged its anti-Catholic past that <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/23/the-2016-gop-field-has-a-bumper-crop-of-catholic-candidates/">many candidates</a> for the party’s nomination for president – including Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie – were Catholic.</p>
<h2>Presidents and popes</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170668/original/file-20170523-5799-1ibcdod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170668/original/file-20170523-5799-1ibcdod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170668/original/file-20170523-5799-1ibcdod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170668/original/file-20170523-5799-1ibcdod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170668/original/file-20170523-5799-1ibcdod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170668/original/file-20170523-5799-1ibcdod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170668/original/file-20170523-5799-1ibcdod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this Dec. 6, 1959 file photo, President Dwight D. Eisenhower walks with Pope John XXIII at the Vatican.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Paul Schutzer, File</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Republican politicians also became willing to do what was once unthinkable: be seen with the pope. In 1959, Dwight Eisenhower became the first U.S. president to visit the Vatican. A representative of the party that had once campaigned on the fear that Catholic leaders would interfere in American politics had gone to Rome to meet the pope. Eisenhower set a lasting precedent. <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/09/23/442589678/the-complicated-history-of-popes-and-u-s-presidents">Every Republican president</a> since has made the same trip. </p>
<p>As the 2016 campaign progressed, Donald Trump avoided igniting additional feuds with Francis. Although analysts believed that the candidate had a “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/08/28/donald-trump-has-a-massive-catholic-problem/?utm_term=.6bb45266f329">Catholic problem</a>,” Trump did quite well with Catholic voters on Election Day. He not only won white Catholics, but <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/how-the-faithful-voted-a-preliminary-2016-analysis/">he increased</a> the GOP’s share of Catholic voters over 2008 and 2012. Despite his sharp rhetoric on immigration, Trump also won a larger share of Hispanic Catholic voters than the GOP did in those years. </p>
<p>The meeting at the Vatican might well allow Trump an opportunity to put any lingering suspicion of anti-Catholicism to rest and cast himself as the heir of McKinley and Roosevelt’s views on Catholicism. As he departed for Belgium, the
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pope-welcomes-trump-at-the-vatican-despite-past-disagreements/2017/05/24/9b3381c6-4056-11e7-adba-394ee67a7582_story.html?utm_term=.a8a5a7a212a2">president tweeted</a>, “Honor of a lifetime to meet His Holiness Pope Francis.” That’s a far cry from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/world/europe/pope-trump-vatican-meet.html">Trump’s past tweets</a> about the pope.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75907/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Mislin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The GOP was once the political home of anti-Catholicism. And the Vatican, it was believed, would use a Catholic president as a way to meddle in US politics.David Mislin, Assistant Professor, Intellectual Heritage Program, Temple UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.