A Multicultural Perspective on Secularism

Abstract

203 As the only social institution enjoying the monopoly of the right to use force and to act in the name and on behalf of all its members, the state is closely related to other areas of society such as its economy, education and religion. In principle none of them falls outside its purview. We ask, for example, how it should be related to the economy and debate whether it should leave it alone or control it, and arrive at libertarian, liberal, social democratic or communist answers. A similar question arises concerning the relation between the state and religion, obviously involving different considerations and values. It may be asked from the standpoint of the state as is common in most discussions, or that of religion where our concern is to protect it from being politicised and losing its integrity, or both. It may again be asked in the context of a society with only one religion, as in most of the West until recently, or that of a society with several as in most non-Western societies. In the latter case the plurality of religions not only introduces the additional question of equal treatment of all religions but also brings into focus the diversity of religions and shapes the discussion of their relation to the state. Religions vary greatly in their nature, structure and ways of conceptualising their relation to the state. Some are theistic, others agnostic or border on atheism; some stress beliefs, others practices; some centre on the individual, others are communal. Again some religions are deeply suspicious of the state, others welcome and even rely on it. Given this diversity the state cannot be related to all religions in the same way, and that complicates the discussion of secularism.