In the early twenty-first century, it is now clear that religion is increasingly influential in the political realm in ways which call into question the principles and practices of secularism. The Iranian revolution of 1978-9 marked the decisive ‘reappearance’ of political religion in global politics, highlighting a major development which is the subject of this edited volume. Addressing a highly salient and timely topic, this book examines the consequences of political interactions involving the state and religious actors in Christian, Muslim and Judaist contexts. Building on research, the basic premise of this text is that religious actors – including Islamist groups, the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox churches – pose various challenges for citizenship, democracy, and secularisation in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The key questions on which the book focuses are: Why, how, and when do religious actors seek to influence political outcomes in these regions? Providing a survey of what is happening in relation to the interaction of religion and politics, both domestically and internationally, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of politics, religion, European and Middle East studies.
Author(s): Jeffrey Haynes
Edition: 1
Year: 2009
Language: English
Pages: 258
Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 8
Copyright......Page 9
Contents......Page 10
Illustrations......Page 12
Contributors......Page 14
Series editor’s preface......Page 15
1 Religion and politics in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa......Page 18
Part I: Citizenship......Page 38
2 Church, state and the politics of citizenship: A comparative study of 19 Western democracies......Page 40
3 The Orthodox Church and Greek–Turkish relations: Religion as source of rivalry or conciliation?......Page 68
Part II: Secularisation......Page 88
4 Religion and secularism in Israel: Between politics and sub-politics......Page 90
5 Between mediation and commitment: The Catholic Church and the Basque conflict......Page 108
6 E unum pluribus: The role of religion in the project of European integration......Page 131
Part III: Democracy......Page 154
7 Political Islam and Islamic capital: The case of Turkey......Page 156
8 The Jamiat al-Adl wal-Ihsan: Religion, political opposition and stalled democratisation in Morocco......Page 179
9 The church in opposition: Religious actors, lobbying and Catholic voters in Italy......Page 194
10 Morality politics in a Catholic democracy: A hard road towards liberalisation of gay rights in Poland......Page 219
Conclusion......Page 244
Index......Page 256
