Neutrality and “Religious Freedom for the Good of All”

Jeremy Patrick is a Lecturer for the University of Southern Queensland School of Law and Justice

There are many laudable statements in “Religious Freedom for the Good of All.”  The document acknowledges the Church must exist in a pluralistic and multicultural society (para. 10), that individual freedom is the birthright of every human being (para. 37), that coercion is not a legitimate means of religious conversion (para. 41), that the existence of “intermediary bodies” (including religious associations) between the individual and the state is crucial for a well-functioning society (para. 52), and that the free exercise of religion should be limited only when the rights of others or the necessities of public order are infringed (para. 79).  These may not be new positions for the Catholic Church since 1965, but they certainly represent real progress in the Church’s understanding of religious freedom across its long (and in the document, carefully-elided) history (see, e.g., para. 27).

The irony is that they are all also quintessential elements of the self-professedly “neutral” secular liberal democratic state that is repeatedly castigated throughout the document. According to the document, the liberal state is (somehow) simultaneously indifferent to religion (and thus responsible for the rise of “religious radicalization”) but also actively hostile to religion (and thus responsible for a “soft totalitarianism”) (para. 4). The heart of the problem, we’re told repeatedly, is the false idol of state neutrality towards religion (para. 5, 62-65, and 86).

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WEBINAR: Advancing Religious Freedom in Different Political Regimes

Webinar Presented by the International Center for Law and Religion Studies’ Blog

“Talk About: Law and Religion”

7 June 2020

9:00 a.m. (Mountain Time), 17:00 (Central European time)

This webinar will highlight opportunities and successful stories, as well as challenges and failures in advancing religious freedom globally. Five distinguished panelists will share their personal experience of promoting religious freedom on political and legal levels, as well as in communities, education, and academia ranging from Iraq to Eastern Europe. What model of religious freedom should be promoted? What obstacles do religious freedom defenders face in non-democratic regimes and young democracies? How have they interacted with local politicians and other important public actors? How does advocating for religious freedom contribute to a broader human rights agenda and the common good? What are more important—legal and political reforms or religious literacy programs and promoting religious tolerance? What are realistic results to be achieved? Why are international religious freedom programs sometimes ineffective and being criticized?

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Islamic Religious Education in Europe: An Increasing Matter of Concern

Leni Franken is a senior researcher and teacher assistant at the University of Antwerp (Belgium)

Against the backdrop of labor migration, family reunification, and the ongoing refugee crisis, the number of Muslims in Europe has increased over the past decades. This has resulted in a growing number of Muslim schools and Muslim students enrolled in Islamic Religious Education in state schools. In the Netherlands, for instance, the number of state-funded Muslim schools has increased from only a few schools in the 1980s to more than 50 schools today. Comparably, the present number of students enrolled in Islamic Religious Education in Belgian state schools is, with more than 20%, twice as many as ten years ago. In addition, an increasing number of students with a Muslim background are enrolled in non-denominational and non-confessional “religion education” classes, which are organized in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish state schools.

Given this rather new sociological situation, combined with the presence of (violent) Muslim fundamentalism in Europe, “Islamic Religious Education” has become a matter of concern for politicians, religious stakeholders, policymakers, and academics. Hence the book Islamic Religious Education in Europe [1] offers a comparative study of curricula, teaching materials, and teacher training in fourteen European countries. These country reports are followed by multi-disciplinary essays—from the hermeneutical-critical to the postcolonial—addressing challenges posed by teaching about and into Islam.

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