Lebanon

Lebanon PDF Author: Mark Farha
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108471455
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
Chronicles secularism in Lebanon up to the present day, presenting possible causes for its decline in the face of sectarianism.

Lebanon

Lebanon PDF Author: Mark Farha
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108471455
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 329

Get Book Here

Book Description
Chronicles secularism in Lebanon up to the present day, presenting possible causes for its decline in the face of sectarianism.

Science under Siege

Science under Siege PDF Author: Dick Houtman
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030696499
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
Identifying scientism as religion’s secular counterpart, this collection studies contemporary contestations of the authority of science. These controversies suggest that what we are witnessing today is not an increase in the authority of science at the cost of religion, but a dual decline in the authorities of religion and science alike. This entails an erosion of the legitimacy of universally binding truth claims, be they religiously or scientifically informed. Approaching the issue from a cultural-sociological perspective and building on theories from the sociology of religion, the volume unearths the cultural mechanisms that account for the headwind faced by contemporary science. The empirical contributions highlight how the field of academic science has lost much of its former authority vis-à-vis competing social realms; how political and religious worldviews define particular research findings as favorites while dismissing others; and how much of today’s distrust of science is directed against scientific institutions and academic scientists rather than against science per se.

The Secular State Under Siege

The Secular State Under Siege PDF Author: Christian Joppke
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745691404
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Throughout human history, religion and politics have entertained the most intimate of connections as systems of authority regulating individuals and society. While the two have come apart through the process of secularization, secularism is challenged today by the return of public religion. This cogent analysis unravels the nature of the connection, disconnection, and attempted reconnection between religion and politics in the West. In a comparison of Western Europe and North America, Christianity and Islam, Joppke advances far-reaching theoretical, historical, and comparative-political arguments. With respect to theory, it is argued that only a “substantive” concept of religion, as pertaining to the existence of supra-human powers, opens up the possibility of a historical-comparative perspective on religion. At the level of history, secularization is shown to be the distinct outcome of Latin Christianity itself. And at the level of comparative politics, the Christian Right in America which has attacked the “wall of separation” between religion and state and Islam in Europe with the controversial insistence on sharia law and other “illiberal” claims from some quarters are taken to be counterpart incarnations of public religion and challenges to the secular state. This clearly argued, sweeping book will provide an invaluable framework for approaching an array of critical issues at the intersection of religion, law and politics for advanced students and researchers across the social sciences and legal studies, as well as for the interested public.

Parents Under Siege

Parents Under Siege PDF Author: James Garbarino
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743223837
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
A compassionate and practical guide for parents facing the difficult task of raising children in an increasingly violent world. This intelligent, parent-centered reference takes a sympathetic yet tough-minded look at the forces that are shaping--and disrupting--American family life today.

The Theocons

The Theocons PDF Author: Damon Linker
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0307387658
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
An essential history of the influential men who have spearheaded the movement to erode the wall separating church and state.Beginning as far-left radicals during the 1960s, the theocons in Damon Linker’s book (including Richard John Neuhaus, Michael Novak, and George Weigel) gradually transitioned to conservatism when they grew frustrated with the failures of the decade’s revolutionary goals. Linker shows how, starting during the Reagan administration, they worked to forge a Christian alliance between Evangelical Protestants and Conservative Catholics. By injecting the language of faith into political life, this movement appealed to a wide swath of voters and ultimately played a central role in the election of George W. Bush. The Theocons is an absorbing and revelatory look at an ideological crusade that every American needs to know about.

State of Siege

State of Siege PDF Author: Eric Ambler
Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
ISBN: 0307949990
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
All in all Steve Fraser had enjoyed his three-year stint in the former Dutch Southeast Asian colony of Sunda, and he’d been well compensated. But now he was looking forward to a last weekend in the capital before heading home. But Sunda was newly independent, and not entirely stable. An opposition faction with fundamentalist Islamic leanings was set on overthrowing the provisional government. And instead of enjoying a sybaritic weekend with the Eurasian beauty Rosalie, Fraser finds himself trapped with her by a fanatical group who’ve taken over the country’s radio station and made their headquarters in his friend Jebb’s apartment. As the government launches a counterattack, the couple’s survival depends on their ability to dodge bullets and the shifting loyalties of the coup’s lieutenants.

Religious Difference in a Secular Age

Religious Difference in a Secular Age PDF Author: Saba Mahmood
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691153280
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
How secular governance in the Middle East is making life worse—not better—for religious minorities The plight of religious minorities in the Middle East is often attributed to the failure of secularism to take root in the region. Religious Difference in a Secular Age challenges this assessment by examining four cornerstones of secularism—political and civil equality, minority rights, religious freedom, and the legal separation of private and public domains. Drawing on her extensive fieldwork in Egypt with Coptic Orthodox Christians and Bahais—religious minorities in a predominantly Muslim country—Saba Mahmood shows how modern secular governance has exacerbated religious tensions and inequalities rather than reduced them. Tracing the historical career of secular legal concepts in the colonial and postcolonial Middle East, she explores how contradictions at the very heart of political secularism have aggravated and amplified existing forms of Islamic hierarchy, bringing minority relations in Egypt to a new historical impasse. Through a close examination of Egyptian court cases and constitutional debates about minority rights, conflicts around family law, and controversies over freedom of expression, Mahmood invites us to reflect on the entwined histories of secularism in the Middle East and Europe. A provocative work of scholarship, Religious Difference in a Secular Age challenges us to rethink the promise and limits of the secular ideal of religious equality.

Islam Under Siege

Islam Under Siege PDF Author: Akbar S. Ahmed
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745640923
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
In this groundbreaking book, Akbar Ahmed, one of the world's leading authorities on Islam, who has worked in the Muslim world but lives in the West, explains what is going wrong in his society by referring to Islamic history and beliefs. Employing theological and anthropological perspectives, he attempts to answer the questions that people in the West are asking about Islam: "Why do they hate us?" "Is Islam compatible with democracy?" "Does Islam subjugate women?" "Does the Quran preach violence?" These important questions are of relevance to Muslims and to non-Muslims alike. Islam Under Siege points out the need for, and provides the route to, the dialogue of civilizations. September 11, 2001, underlined the role of Islam in our time. In its demographic spread, its political span, and its religious commitment, Islam will be an increasingly forceful presence on the world stage in the twenty-first century. While some scholars predict that there will be a clash of civilizations, others see a need for a dialogue of civilizations. This book will help students, scholars of politics, sociology, international relations, and cultural studies, and reporters as well as a more general audience interested in some of the most important issues of our time.

Sacred as Secular

Sacred as Secular PDF Author: Abdolmohammad Kazemipur
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0228009693
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Debates about Islam and Muslim societies have intensified in the last four decades, triggered by the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and, later, by the events of 9/11. Too often present in these debates are wrongheaded assumptions about the attachment of Muslims to their religion and the impossibility of secularism in the Muslim world. At the heart of these assumptions is the notion of Muslim exceptionalism: the idea that Muslims think, believe, and behave in ways that are fundamentally different from other faith communities. In Sacred as Secular Abdolmohammad Kazemipur attempts to debunk this flawed notion of Muslim exceptionalism by looking at religious trends in Iran since 1979. Drawing on a wide range of data and sources, including national social attitudes surveys collected since the 1970s, he examines developments in the spheres of politics and governance, schools and seminaries, contemporary philosophy, and the self-expressed beliefs and behaviours of Iranian men, women, and youth. He reveals that beneath Iran’s religious façade is a deep secularization that manifests not only in individual beliefs, but also in Iranian political philosophy, institutional and clerical structures, and intellectual life. Empirically and theoretically rich, Sacred as Secular looks at the place of religion in Iranian society from a sociological perspective, expanding the debate on secularism from a predominantly West-centric domain to the Muslim world.

Inventing Secularism

Inventing Secularism PDF Author: Ray Argyle
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 147664229X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Jailed for atheism and disowned by his family, George Jacob Holyoake came out of an English prison at the age of 25 determined to bring an end to religion's control over daily life. This first modern biography of the founder of Secularism describes a transformative figure whose controversial and conflict-filled life helped shape the modern world. Ever on the front lines of social reform, Holyoake was hailed for having won "the freedoms we take for granted today." With Secularism now under siege, George Holyoake's vision of a "virtuous society" rings today with renewed clarity.