Islam and Democracy in Indonesia

Islam and Democracy in Indonesia
Author: Jeremy Menchik
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2016-01-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1107119146

This book explains how the leaders of the world's largest Islamic organizations understand tolerance, explicating how politics works in a Muslim-majority democracy.

Intolerant Religion in a Tolerant-Liberal Democracy

Intolerant Religion in a Tolerant-Liberal Democracy
Author: Yossi Nehushtan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2016-01-21
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1782259503

This book aims to examine and critically analyse the role that religion has and should have in the public and legal sphere. The main purpose of the book is to explain why religion, on the whole, should not be tolerated in a tolerant-liberal democracy and to describe exactly how it should not be tolerated – mainly by addressing legal issues. The main arguments of the book are, first, that as a general rule illiberal intolerance should not be tolerated; secondly, that there are meaningful, unique links between religion and intolerance, and between holding religious beliefs and holding intolerant views (and ultimately acting upon these views); and thirdly, that the religiosity of a legal claim is normally a reason, although not necessarily a prevailing one, not to accept that claim.

The New Religious Intolerance

The New Religious Intolerance
Author: Martha C. Nussbaum
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2012-04-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674065913

What impulse prompted some newspapers to attribute the murder of 77 Norwegians to Islamic extremists, until it became evident that a right-wing Norwegian terrorist was the perpetrator? Why did Switzerland, a country of four minarets, vote to ban those structures? How did a proposed Muslim cultural center in lower Manhattan ignite a fevered political debate across the United States? In The New Religious Intolerance, Martha C. Nussbaum surveys such developments and identifies the fear behind these reactions. Drawing inspiration from philosophy, history, and literature, she suggests a route past this limiting response and toward a more equitable, imaginative, and free society. Fear, Nussbaum writes, is "more narcissistic than other emotions." Legitimate anxieties become distorted and displaced, driving laws and policies biased against those different from us. Overcoming intolerance requires consistent application of universal principles of respect for conscience. Just as important, it requires greater understanding. Nussbaum challenges us to embrace freedom of religious observance for all, extending to others what we demand for ourselves. She encourages us to expand our capacity for empathetic imagination by cultivating our curiosity, seeking friendship across religious lines, and establishing a consistent ethic of decency and civility. With this greater understanding and respect, Nussbaum argues, we can rise above the politics of fear and toward a more open and inclusive future.

The Limits of Tolerance

The Limits of Tolerance
Author: Denis Lacorne
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2019-05-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0231547048

The modern notion of tolerance—the welcoming of diversity as a force for the common good—emerged in the Enlightenment in the wake of centuries of religious wars. First elaborated by philosophers such as John Locke and Voltaire, religious tolerance gradually gained ground in Europe and North America. But with the resurgence of fanaticism and terrorism, religious tolerance is increasingly being challenged by frightened publics. In this book, Denis Lacorne traces the emergence of the modern notion of religious tolerance in order to rethink how we should respond to its contemporary tensions. In a wide-ranging argument that spans the Ottoman Empire, the Venetian republic, and recent controversies such as France’s burqa ban and the white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, The Limits of Tolerance probes crucial questions: Should we impose limits on freedom of expression in the name of human dignity or decency? Should we accept religious symbols in the public square? Can we tolerate the intolerant? While acknowledging that tolerance can never be entirely without limits, Lacorne defends the Enlightenment concept against recent attempts to circumscribe it, arguing that without it a pluralistic society cannot survive. Awarded the Prix Montyon by the Académie Française, The Limits of Tolerance is a powerful reflection on twenty-first-century democracy’s most fundamental challenges.

The Closing of the Liberal Mind

The Closing of the Liberal Mind
Author: Kim R. Holmes
Publisher: Encounter Books
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2017-12-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1594039569

A former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State and currently Acting Senior Vice President for Research at The Heritage Foundation, Kim R. Holmes surveys the state of liberalism in America today and finds that it is becoming its opposite—illiberalism—abandoning the precepts of open-mindedness and respect for individual rights, liberties, and the rule of law upon which the country was founded, and becoming instead an intolerant, rigidly dogmatic ideology that abhors dissent and stifles free speech. Tracing the new illiberalism historically to the radical Enlightenment, a movement that rejected the classic liberal ideas of the moderate Enlightenment that were prominent in the American Founding, Holmes argues that today’s liberalism has forsaken its American roots, incorporating instead the authoritarian, anti-clerical, and anti-capitalist prejudices of the radical and largely European Left. The result is a closing of the American liberal mind. Where once freedom of speech and expression were sacrosanct, today liberalism employs speech codes, trigger warnings, boycotts, and shaming rituals to stifle freedom of thought, expression, and action. It is no longer appropriate to call it liberalism at all, but illiberalism—a set of ideas in politics, government, and popular culture that increasingly reflects authoritarian and even anti-democratic values, and which is devising new strategies of exclusiveness to eliminate certain ideas and people from the political process. Although illiberalism has always been a temptation for American liberals, lurking in the radical fringes of the Left, it is today the dominant ideology of progressive liberal circles. This makes it a new danger not only to the once venerable tradition of liberalism, but to the American nation itself, which needs a viable liberal tradition that pursues social and economic equality while respecting individual liberties.

The Intolerance of Tolerance

The Intolerance of Tolerance
Author: D. A. Carson
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 197
Release: 2012-01-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0802831702

Carson traces the subtle but enormous shift in the way we have come to understand tolerance over recent years--from defending the rights of those who hold different beliefs to affirming all beliefs as equally valid and correct. He looks back at the history of this shift and discusses its implications for culture today, especially its bearing on democracy, discussions about good and evil, and Christian truth claims. --from publisher description

Religion and Political Tolerance in America

Religion and Political Tolerance in America
Author: Paul Djupe
Publisher: Temple University Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2015-06-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1439912335

Religious institutions are often engaged in influencing the beliefs and values that individuals hold. But religious groups can also challenge how people think about democracy, including the extension of equal rights and liberties regardless of viewpoint, or what is commonly called political tolerance. The essays in Religion and Political Tolerance in America seek to understand how these elements interrelate. The editor and contributors to this important volume present new and innovative research that wrestles with the fundamental question of the place of religion in democratic society. They address topics ranging from religious contributions to social identity to the political tolerance that religious elites (clergy) hold and advocate to others, and how religion shapes responses to intolerance. The conclusion, by Ted Jelen, emphasizes that religion’s take on political tolerance is nuanced and that they are not incompatible; religion can sometimes enhance the tolerance of ordinary citizens.

Defending the Gospel in Legal Style

Defending the Gospel in Legal Style
Author: John Warwick Montgomery
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2017-10-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 172525056X

Traditional apologetics is either focused on obscure, quasi-Thomist philosophical arguments for God's existence or on 18th-century-style answers to alleged biblical contradictions. But a new approach has recently entered the picture: the juridical defence of historic Christian faith, with its particular concern for demonstrating Jesus's deity and saving work for humankind. The undisputed leader of this movement is John Warwick Montgomery, emeritus professor of law and humanities, University of Bedfordshire, England, and director, International Academy of Apologetics, Evangelism and Human Rights, Strasbourg, France. His latest book (of more than sixty published during his career) shows the strength of legal apologetics: its arguments, drawn from secular legal reasoning, can be rejected only at the cost of jettisoning the legal system itself, on which every civilised society depends for its very existence. The present work also includes theological essays on vital topics of the day, characterised by the author's well-known humour and skill for lucid communication.

The Palgrave Handbook of Toleration

The Palgrave Handbook of Toleration
Author: Mitja Sardoč
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Total Pages: 1174
Release: 2021-09-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9783030421205

The Palgrave Handbook of Toleration aims to provide a comprehensive presentation of toleration as the foundational idea associated with engagement with diversity. This handbook is intended to provide an authoritative exposition of contemporary accounts of toleration, the central justifications used to advance it, a presentation of the different concepts most commonly associated with it (e.g. respect, recognition) as well as the discussion of the many problems dominating the controversies on toleration at both the theoretical or practical level. The Palgrave Handbook of Toleration is aimed as a resource for a global scholarly audience looking for either a detailed presentation of major accounts of toleration, the most important conceptual issues associated with toleration and the many problems dividing either scholars, policy-makers or practitioners.

The Place of Tolerance in Islam

The Place of Tolerance in Islam
Author: Khaled Abou El Fadl
Publisher: Beacon Press
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2002-11-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0807096903

Khaled Abou El Fadl, a prominent critic of Islamic puritanism, leads off this lively debate by arguing that Islam is a deeply tolerant religion. Injunctions to violence against nonbelievers stem from misreadings of the Qur'an, he claims, and even jihad, or so-called holy war, has no basis in Qur'anic text or Muslim theology but instead grew out of social and political conflict. Many of Abou El Fadl's respondents think differently. Some contend that his brand of Islam will only appeal to Westerners and students in "liberal divinity schools" and that serious religious dialogue in the Muslim world requires dramatic political reforms. Other respondents argue that theological debates are irrelevant and that our focus should be on Western sabotage of such reforms. Still others argue that calls for Islamic "tolerance" betray the Qur'anic injunction for Muslims to struggle against their oppressors. The debate underscores an enduring challenge posed by religious morality in a pluralistic age: how can we preserve deep religious conviction while participating in what Abou El Fadl calls "a collective enterprise of goodness" that cuts across confessional differences? With contributions from Tariq Ali, Milton Viorst, and John Esposito, and others.