Around the Bloc: Bulgarian City Bans Islamic Veils
In the same city, 14 Muslims are on trial for extremism and spreading religious hatred.
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In the same city, 14 Muslims are on trial for extremism and spreading religious hatred.
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This article aims to examine the ethnic minorities’ state of affairs in light of the constitutional reforms in Armenia since President Serzh Sargsyan decided to open the consultations with the parliamentary factions on November 2005. Policy-makers and representatives on behalf of ethnic minority groups have been taking relevantly place at the recent wave of democratic protests throughout the process of constitutional reforms in order to entrench a more stable multiparty system, independent judiciary, new balances between State and civic society. Hence, what is the reason to endorse those tiny ethnic groups such wealth of minority rights and political recognition? Why have ethnic Armenian minority groups not had objections or particular regrets in the constitutional reform processes? In turn, may this high level of internal recognition to ethnic minority groups foster assistance to Armenian minorities and protect Armenian heritage into the de facto entities of the South Caucasus?
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Tema ovog rada je Islamska vjerska zajednica u Pljevljima između dva svjetska rata. Da bi što potpunije objasili ovu temu moraćemo prvo pojasniti opšte ustrojstvo IVZ u Kraljevini za period od 1918-1941. godine. Ovaj rad je koncipiran tako da se u njemu pojasne one stvari koje je IVZ samostalno uređivala a to su: vjerska pitanja, šerijatsko sudstvo, vakufskomearifske poslove, kao i vjersko-prosvjetna pitanja. IVZ posmatraćemo kroz prizmu odluka i uredbi koje je vlast na nju primjenjivala u periodu od 1918-1930. godine, kao i kroz ustave IVZ iz 1930. i 1936. godine. Svako pitanje koje objasnimo uopšteno pojasnićemo i na konkretnom primjeru, tj. u Pljevljima.
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The article discusses the problems of determining the starting point of history of the Western Empire in 800 AC and Emperor Charlemagne position towards papacy. In the political (problems with kingship and feudal system) and ecclesiastical (Second Council of Nicaea) contexts are also present very important and more general debates of historians on monistic or dualistic conceptions which form interrelations between popes and emperors.
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The notion of secularism as part of the modern world refers to systems that value the conscience of their citizens. In terms of historical conditionality, one associates secularism with the separation of church and state. On the opposite pole there is the concept of secularism, of the ideology that is connected with the systems of totalitarian atheism. These systems seek to invoke the anti-religious notion of the world as their own conception of the good. Exclusion of religion and neglect in the life of societies and peoples follows from the assumption of an inadequate idea of secularism that does not pay attention to the historical memory and living tradition of European peoples. This version of secular thought, often fixed only as a superficial stereotype, invalidates the constructive, public role of religion in practice and in the historical and social life of a peculiarly wrong methodology etsi deus non daretur. "The openness" of the state should not only appear in the fact that one wants to achieve the attachment to the society by the building of their prosperity. Above all, one must satisfy the need for equality, reject the principle of unlimited competition from different world views, and respect human rights. The secularism opened to religion has advantages in public minds because religion is the primary factor in socializing, educating, and building virtue. Not only ethics is enough for a good life. It is doubtful without religion to reach the height of moral life. The proclamation of ethical relativism and the rejection of religion have helped make liberal societies helpless in the face of the threat of totalitarian ideologies. At present, a threat is the crisis of the idea of truth and the associated devaluation of human dignity and nihilism.
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This article focuses on the relationship between religion and politics in contemporary Turkish novel, based on Orhan Pamuk’s novelKar. The study aims to understand and explain paradigms of religion-politics relations in Kar, which approaches Turkey’s recent religious and political debates with a literary fiction, and reflects how religious and political cultures are reflected in Turkey in this frame. In the novel, a new development momentum after 1980, and with the right, conservative and Islamist circles that motivated politics more actively during the 1990s, the modernization that has not undergone in Turkey in a way, in fact, within the framework of the approach of the writer, the values of provincial representatives in Turkey conflicts have been brought forward. In a postmodern perspective, the Kar shared important photographs of religion and politics at this stage of the modernization struggle between Islamist-secular, Eastern-Western conflicts. Finally, religion in the novel was dominated ideologically by the instrumentalist of poverty and deprivation, rather than the character of preventing change according to its place. Politics is described as more Jacobean and secular, and also as provincial in relation to modernization there.Summary: There is no doubt that literature in the process of transition from the empire to the republic; the novel, especially as a Western product played an important role in the consciousness level of modern Turkey. This literary influence, rather than pursuing a certain line, took place within two centuries of adventurous journey, generally in harmony with the periodical historical, social and political conditions of the Turkish society. In this context, the Turkish novel was seen as a means of producing different powers and ideologies, especially at the points reached by the modernization in the last half century, while at the beginning adopting a legitimizing attitude to make politics more intense. But with it, as an important element of the cultural system, religion has always been one of the main themes in the journey of the novel.The article deals with the study of religion-politics relations in the contemporary Turkish novel in terms of sociology of religion. As an example of the study, Orhan Pamuk was chosen as the Snow novel, which made its first publication in 2002 and took the subject of tense religious-political relations matched by the 1980s conditions in Turkey with a broad cultural background. The aim of the study is to understand and explain the approach of the contemporary Turkish novel to religion-politics relations which always created a tension environment in Turkey. By making a historical comparison in this framework, the place of the Snow is glanced in the politics and religion perception of the Turkish novel, Orhan Pamuk was emphasized as a social personality and author, and then different levels of consciousness constructed by the social events, phenomena and processes in the novel have been evaluated from a phenomenological perspective.In this study, the Snow was regarded as a novel whose recent religion-politics relations of modern Turkey were treated with a postmodern allegory through different sets of meanings of religious and political cultures. In this regard, the Snow has presented itself as a literary product, as well as a text that sheds light on the fundamental problems of today’s religion-politics relations, which include different levels of consciousness about the religious, political and ideological knowledge of society. From here it can be said that the novel, in the context of literature-society relations, has brought wealth from the one side by organizing the events within the framework of the religious and political values of the society while offering postmodern points of view to these values from the other side. Finally, in the Snow, Pamuk realized a literary expression on the basis of society of religion and politics relations in Turkey. This expression, however, has not been independent of the religious and political accumulation that has been transferred from the Ottoman to the Republic, as well as the social personality that it shapes around an institutional baggage.Clearly, Pamuk has put a number of meanings in religion and politics and their relationship to each other, sometimes through different characters, sometimes through irony and criticism in the Snow. Around the postmodern paradigm, the Snow has presented different meanings worlds of religion and politics and the different images of these two old social institutions in a philosophical and sociological perspective. In other words, Pamuk deals with the novel’s event pattern, social typologies, social classes and their epistemological accumulations in their natural socioeconomic, cultural, religious and political environments. The Snow is fictionalized around an identity struggle shaped by the Islamist-modernist thriller. Here, although the individual-compromising aspects of religion and politics “Kemalist” and “Islamist” have emphasized the imperative, populist political understandings and the exclusionary and ideological aspects of religion. Thus, the novel inspired by the military intervention on February 28, 1997, shed light on the religious and political culture of Turkey, and finally attracted significant photographs of the society, which are reflected on the meaning networks of religious and political institutions.In the Snow, religion and politics are based on the meanings of concepts such as “coup”, “Kemalism”, “political Islam”, “turban”, “Islamist”, “secular”. In the novel, the social and political images put forward in the context of “coup” carried a number of symbols representing the last half-century of the Republic in the 2000s. As a matter of fact, the coup that was taken on the novel was made especially against the “religious” who organized and strengthened around the socioeconomic, cultural, political, religious and ethnic problems that occurred after 1980. On the other hand, in the novel “Kemalism” and his ideology have become another important theme in which politics is evaluated in Turkey. In this context, in general terms, the view of the “Kemalism” and the military bureaucracy on the public and its values have been presented in a Jacobean and elitist attitude, which restricts individual rights and freedoms to the state, with different categorical characteristics.In addition to stressing the characteristics of being a subclass of religion, compensating for the deprivations and preventing social change in place, in the novel emphasized the fact that, with its coup, it gained a political, ideological, populist and instrumental identity. As a matter of fact, girls with headscarves have been seen as a symbolic case by political Islamists and they have made this case a political material. In the Snow, religion and politics are regarded as social institutions that are separate and sometimes in conflict with each other, but also the mutual relations between the two institutions in the context of the interest relations of Sheikh Efendi and some bureaucrats. Thus, the novel also points to the old relations of religion-politics relations in Turkey that find their place on the symbolic plane.The Snow, which manifested itself as a literary attitude against all kinds of political and religious impositions have proposed for religion and politics a pluralistic view. This situation which can be regarded as new in terms of the Turkish novel has in fact provided new universes for the reader about religious and political culture. However, the proposals and perspectives are not shaped independently of their own dynamics of religious and political cultures.
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Faced with numerous and profound social changes, in the Second Vatican Council the Church set for itself a task to once again raise awareness and show its members and the modern world the essence of Christian faith. The Pastoral Constitution »Gaudium et Spes« not only rejects the dualistic opposition of the Church and the world, but clearly highlights the Council’s opening of the Church to the world. Regarding the world, the Council offers a differentiated image with its positive and negative aspects and challenges. Gaudium et Spes calls one of these challenges »the autonomy of earthly affairs«. This article seeks to explore this for the modern man and the world important topic. The Council distinguishes between relative or legitimate and absolute or illegitimate autonomy. The discussion on this topic is much older and it goes back to the early centuries of Christianity, but it was not until the Second Vatican Council that it was adequately defined. To position this topic correctly it is necessary to consider both the Council’s image of man and of the world, and also to examine the ambivalence of the relationship between religion and the world, the Church and society. The autonomy of earthly affairs encompasses a wide range of human activities.
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The paper is devoted to the analysis of different faiths in Iran and to the official national policy. These problems are extremely important for Iran, because religious controversies are associated with national and religious contradictions there. We believe that the official national and religious policy has an impact on Iran’s policy in the region where “separated peoples” live along the borders of the country. The statistical demographic data and economic potential of the region have been analyzed, and it has been revealed that the most economically backward provinces are inhabited by ethnic minorities. These provinces are the main hotbeds of socio-political instability and separatists movements. The Islamic leadership policy in recent years, which has been focused on maintaining the living standards in the backward provinces attracting budgetary and Islamic funds, has been considered. It has been concluded that geopolitical factors and the influence of the “third forces” are responsible for the strengthening of instability in the region and for fanning Sunni-Shia antagonism. Their role is much more important than the existing religious controversies. The main aim for the Iranian leadership is to preserve the national integrity of the country, to fight against separatist movements and to prevent attempts to create the “Greater Middle East”. The official national and religious policy is in line with these aims.
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The review of: Robert A. Graham, S. J., The Vatican and Communism in World War II: What Really Happened? Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1996, 199 strani
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On the basis of the diary of biskop A.B. Jeglič and diverse literary sources the author describes the relationship between the supreme church authorities and a leading politician of a Catholic of a Catholic orientation. Bishop Jeglič had respected the political wisdom of Dr. Korošec and his position in the political hierarchy, the conflicting interests pursued by Belgrade and the Vatican, but intimately the bishop resented his chaotic clerical status. Brielfly, the author also describes the relationship between Korošec and the successor of Jeglič bishop Rozman. The two bishops considered Korošec to be a most reliable mediator between the church on the one, and the court as well as state authorities, on the other hand, even though the relationship may often have been very tense, especially when the concordat had been signed.
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The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Convention) guarantees through Article 9. freedom of thought, conscience and religion. While all European countries have accepted Convention, and many other documents which in theory guarantee many human rights and freedom of religion, in practice they do not applyequally to all groups of people. As Muslims are a growing group in Europe, it will of ten come into question their way of dress on work and public places. By studying the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (The Court), particularly the cases Dahlab, Lautsi and other, it is evident discrimination to the Muslim part of the population in European countries. The Court interpreted differently religious symbols but also when it comes to Islamic symbols, prohibit them, while other dominant religion symbol sallows. In addition, the European Court of Justice’s case - law has also recently appeared in thiscase in two cases
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The madrasas in Kosovo were founded during the Ottoman Empire in the period from the 15th to the 19th centuries. They occupied a central place in the Ottoman educational system. Kosovo changed a number of state-legal frameworks during the 20th century: the Ottoman Empire (until 1912), the Kingdom of SHS (until 1929), the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (until 1941), Italy (until 1945), the FPRY and later the SFRY (until 1992), FR Yugoslavia (until 1999) and the period of the struggle for independence at the beginning of the 21st century. Each state had a different attitude towards the educational process conducted in madrasas. During the First World War, a large number of madrasas were closed. Those that survived have undergone numerous reforms. The most difficult period in their work in Kosovo was the period after the Second World War, namely from 1948 to 1952. Then all were closed. The lower Alaudin madrasa in Priština started to work in 1952, and in 1962 it became a high school madrasa. Until the end of the 20th century, Kosovo had only one madrasa. Separate departments for men were established in 1993 in Prizren and Gnjilan, while for girls in Priština and Prizren they were opened in 1997.
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In der historischen, soziologischen und ekklesiologischen Forschung der Nachwendezeit wird der Untersuchung des geistlichen Lebens in den Jahren des kommunistischen Totalitarismus zunehmend Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt. Das Erforschen des geistlichen Lebens der Siebenbürger Sachsen und ihrer kirchlichen Traditionen in den beiden ersten Jahrzehnten des totalitären Staates (1948-1964) trägt mit zum Verstehen der Entwicklungen in dieser Zeit bei. Die Evangelische Kirche A. B. in Rumänien (EKR) hat ihre historische Kontinuität dank der Bemühungen von Bischof Friedrich Müller (1945-1969) gesichert, dessen Amtszeit im vorliegenden Beitrag behandelt wird. Der Autor hat sich zum Ziel gesetzt, die Organisation des geistlichen Lebens, die Rolle der Kirche in der sächsischen Gemeinschaft sowie die vom Kultusministerium und der Securitate als Instrumente des politischen Apparates in der Kontrolle der EKR eingesetzten Vorgehensweisen und Methoden zu untersuchen.
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Die Evangelische Kirche A. B. in Rumänien (EKR) wurde vom rumänischen Staat in der Zeit zwischen der Waffenumkehr Rumäniens am 23. August 1944 und der Anerkennung der deutschen Minderheit als „mitwohnende Nationalität“ sowie der Gründung des Deutschen Antifaschistischen Komitees (DAK) im Februar 1949 als Kultus der Siebenbürger Sachsen angesehen und als solcher vor der Auflösung bewahrt. In Rahmen der EKR konnten Schulen sowie soziale Einrichtungen wirken, ihre führenden Persönlichkeiten vertraten die Gemeinschaft gegenüber den staatlichen Behörden.
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This article, covering the years 1919–1949, focuses on the early development of Tartu Saalem church, a community which officially began in 1919 as a group of revivalist believers who found it hard to fit into the existing ecclesial landscape. In the 1930s, the church joined the Union of Estonian free revivalist believers, and in 1946, under Soviet pressures, merged with a local Pentecostal church, and joined the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists.The movement was from being a closed community towards careful cooperation with other churches, from authoritative leadership towards ways of collective decision making. However, strong leaders, such as Johannes Joonas and Paul Himma, played an important role all through the years under investigation. After 1946 the Saalem church entered a phase of relatively balanced spirituality, with a less emotional style of public prayer and a desire to be rooted in Biblical teaching. Using archive materials the author also gives an account of this free church’s relations with the state.
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Many “long-term” processes exceed the local and regional borders. Modernity is multiply connected with the past.Past has often been an excuse or a weapon for the interpretation of modernity, although it requires the inclusion of historical events as a whole. Each historiography is a product of its time, whose interests often determine issues that, especially influential scientists, supporters of the epic and the Manichaean presentation, set to a complex past, as well as answers, opposing to different perceptions. Scientifically based works nothing have changed related to history if the social and political circumstances are such that is desirable a different „consciousness“ and „culture of memory“. Conflicts, prejudices and stereotypes are introduced into science, affecting to processing and interpretation. This also applies to the study, through the „lens of orientalist big stories,“ the share of the “Eastern Issue”, in which basis was the desire to throw out the Ottoman state, Islam and Muslims as „aliens“ from Europe. The „Eastern Question“ mentality can be used as a reference framework for compiling and understanding the history of Muslims of the Balkans in the 20th century. Mentalities and ideologies are slowly changing. The predominantly negative views of Islam and Muslims are characteristic of the collective and psychological stereotypes of the Christian peoples of South East Europe. During the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, some of the key military-political actors, anti-Muslim and anti-Bosniak-oriented actors, revitalized the concept of the „Eastern Issue“, not only as a term. Islamophobia is embedded in the wider discourse of one of the Western „great tales about superiority“. Especially in the West, has never been insignificant what is known about the Ottoman Empire, Muslims and the Balkans, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosniaks, presented by science, but also by quasi-narrative and tendentious publicist. Such history can be researched rationally only by multi-perspective approach, distancing from nationalist categories and networked negative stereotypes − important levers of political mobilization and manipulation. Many intellectuals capacity is to articulate them, to provide „scientific arguments“ to certain political and national interests. The task of eliminating historical prejudices and stereotypes, which create phobias and lead to discrimination against the „others“, is a difficult task. Resistant has long life, but hard extermination. Reduction and generalization lead to misconceptions.
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This article examines the emergence of Zoroastrianism in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq since 2015 as a new religion inspired by Kurdish nationalism, feminism, ecologism and humanism. The author argues that the emergence of Zoroastrianism at this particular time is due to a combination of the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in 2014, legislative change and the importance some Kurdish nationalists historically attached to Zoroastrianism as the suggested original religion of the Kurds. The article outlines the historical context of Zoroastrianism in Kurdistan, and then explores the origins, beliefs and organisational structure of Kurdish Zoroastrianism. Also discussed are the legislative changes enabling the rise of the movement since 2015. This study draws on interviews with Kurdish Zoroastrian leaders as well as with representatives from the World Zoroastrian Organization, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs and the Alliance of Iraqi Minorities.
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With the French intellectuals of the XVIII century expressing that religion is merely the result of the ignorance of the masses and that religion will disappear completely with the development of education and technological advancement, since the 1970s, with the rise of the Islamic movement and the Islamic revolution in Iran political scientists have begun to talk about ‘religious renaissance’ in many parts of the World. In the light of these debates, terms such as the “politicization of religion” and the “religious character of politics” emerged. Religion continues to have a decisive influence on political life and political culture in many countries of the World, including countries where the majority of the population is irreligious. Religious symbolism exists as an integral part of the symbolism of states, political parties and public institutions. Taking into consideration that religious holidays are public holidays in many countries of the World; religious figures are part of the political elite of many countries; and general religious elements are observed in the oath of the senior officials after taking office the importance of this phenomenon remains controversial.
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