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Secular state

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A secular state is a concept of secularism, whereby a state or country purports to be officially neutral in matters of religion, supporting neither religion nor irreligion.[1] A secular state also claims to treat all its citizens equally regardless of religion, and claims to avoid preferential treatment for a citizen from a particular religion/nonreligion over other religions/nonreligion. Secular states do not have a state religion or equivalent, although the absence of a state religion does not guarantee that a state is secular.

Secular states become secular either upon establishment of the state or upon secularization of the state (e.g. France). Movements for laïcité in France and for the separation of church and state in the United States defined modern concepts of secularism. Historically, the process of secularising states typically involves granting religious freedom, disestablishing state religions, stopping public funds to be used for a religion, freeing the legal system from religious control, freeing up the education system, tolerating citizens who change religion or abstain from religion, and allowing political leadership to come to power regardless of religious beliefs.[2]

Not all legally secular states are completely secular in practice. In France for example, many Christian holy days are official holidays for the public administration, and teachers in Catholic schools are salaried by the state.[3] In India, the government gives subsidy in airfare for Muslims going on Haj pilgrimage(See Haj subsidy). In 2007, the government had to spend Rs. 47,454 per passenger.[4]

Many states that nowadays are secular in practice may have legal vestiges of an earlier established religion. Secularism also has various guises which may coincide with some degree of official religiosity. Thus, in the Commonwealth Realms, the head of state is required to take the Coronation Oath[5] swearing to uphold the Protestant faith. The United Kingdom also maintains positions in its upper house for 26 senior clergymen of the established Church of England known as the Lords Spiritual (spiritual peers).[6] While Scotland is part of the United Kingdom the Scottish Parliament declared Scotland a secular state but maintains the religious monarch[7]. The reverse progression can also occur, a state can go from being secular to a religious state as in the case of Iran where the secularized state of the Pahlavi dynasts was replaced by the Islamic Republic (list below). Over the last 250 years, there has been a trend towards secularism.[8][9][10]

Secular states and religious freedom

It is not only the communist or former communist countries which engage in the secular repression of religion.[11] Turkey, a secular state which purports to guarantee freedom of conscience, aggressively promotes secularism, favoring secular views over religion and controlling all aspects of religious practice.[12] Mexico, also a secular state, has, especially since its 1917 Constitution a history of anticlerical religious oppression.[12] Churches could not engage in worship outside of a church building, own property, sue or defend itself in a suit, or engage in education; religious orders were outlawed, priests deprived of political speech and the right to vote.[12] Many of these restrictions were removed, but many remain, including limitations on the rights of freedom of speech.[12]

With regard to oppression by secular states, scholars have distinguished between what are sometimes called "friendly" and "hostile" separations of church and state.[13] The friendly type limits the interference of the church in matters of the state but also limits the interference of the state in church matters.[14] The hostile variety, by contrast, seeks to confine religion purely to the home or church and limits religious education, religious rites of passage and public displays of faith.[15]

The hostile model of militant secularism arose with the French Revolution and is typified in the Mexican Revolution and the Spanish Constitution of 1931.[15][16] The hostile model exhibited during these events can be seen as approaching the type of political religion seen in totalitarian states.[15]

The French separation of 1905 and the Spanish separation of 1931 have been characterized as the two most hostile of the twentieth century, although the current schemes in those countries are considered generally friendly.[17] France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, however, still considers the current scheme a "negative laicite" and wants to develop a "positive laicite" more open to religion.[18] The hostilities of the state toward religion have been seen as a cause of civil war in Spain[19] and Mexico.

List of secular countries by continent

  States with no state religions
  States with state religions
  Ambiguous or without data

Africa

Americas

Asia

Europe

Oceania

Former secular states

See also

Look up secular in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Notes

  1. ^ Madeley, John T. S. and Zsolt Enyedi, Church and state in contemporary Europe: the chimera of neutrality, p. , 2003 Routledge
  2. ^ Jean Baubérot The secular principle[dead link]
  3. ^ Richard Teese, Private Schools in France: Evolution of a System, Comparative Education Review, Vol. 30, No. 2 (May, 1986), pp. 247-259 Template:En icon
  4. ^ Haj subsidy has Air India fuming
  5. ^ Coronation Oath[dead link]
  6. ^ Different types of Lords
  7. ^ [1]
  8. ^ Harris Interactive News Room - Religious views and beliefs vary greatly by country, according to the latest Financial Times/Harris poll
  9. ^ Summary of Findings: A Portrait of "Generation Next"
  10. ^ Secularization and Secularism - History and nature of secularization and secularism till 1914
  11. ^ Marshall, Paul A. Religious freedom in the world, p. 16, 2007 Rowman & Littlefield
  12. ^ a b c d Marshall, Paul A. Religious freedom in the world, p. 14, 2007 Rowman & Littlefield
  13. ^ Maier, Hans and Jodi Bruhn Totalitarianism and Political Religions, pp. 109 2004 Routledge
  14. ^ Op. cit.Maier & Bruhn 2004, p. 110
  15. ^ a b c Op. cit.Maier & Bruhn 2004, p. 111
  16. ^ Martinez-Torron, Javier Freedom of religion in the case law of the Spanish Constitutional court, p. 2, Brigham Young University Law Review 2001
  17. ^ Stepan, Alfred, Arguing Comparative Politics, p. 221, Oxford University Press
  18. ^ Beita, Peter B. French President's religious mixing riles critics Christianity Today, Jan. 23, 2008
  19. ^ Payne, Stanley G. , A History of Spain and Portugal, Vol. 2, Ch. 25: The Second Spanish Republic , p. 632, (Print Edition: University of Wisconsin Press, 1973) (Library of Iberian Resources Online. Retrieved July 11, 2009.
  20. ^ Article 8 of Constitution
  21. ^ Article 2 of Constitution
  22. ^ Botswana - International Religious Freedom Report 2007
  23. ^ Leaders say Botswana is a secular state
  24. ^ Article 31 of Constitution[dead link]
  25. ^ Article 1 of Constitution
  26. ^ Preamble of Constitution
  27. ^ Article 48 of Constitution
  28. ^ Article 1 of Constitution[dead link]
  29. ^ Article 1 of Constitution
  30. ^ Article 1 of Constitution
  31. ^ Article 11 of Constitution
  32. ^ Article 2 of Constitution[dead link]
  33. ^ Article 1 of Constitution[dead link]
  34. ^ Article 1 of Constitution[dead link]
  35. ^ Article 1 of Constitution[dead link]
  36. ^ Article 14 of Constitution
  37. ^ Preamble of Constitution[dead link]
  38. ^ Articles 10, 14, 19 and 21 of Constitution
  39. ^ Senegal - International Religious Freedom Report 2007
  40. ^ Appendix 1: Draft Constitution for the Republic of Somalia[dead link]
  41. ^ South Africa - International Religious Freedom Report 2007
  42. ^ Article 19 of Constitution
  43. ^ Section Two of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
  44. ^ Article 8 of Constitution
  45. ^ Article 77 of the Constitution
  46. ^ Summary Honduras Constitutions (English)
  47. ^ Article 130 of Constitution
  48. ^ Article II of Constitution Sección 3
  49. ^ Article 36 of Constitution
  50. ^ [2]
  51. ^ Section 45 of Constitution
  52. ^ Preamble of Constitution
  53. ^ Article 20 of Constitution
  54. ^ Article 1 of Constitution[dead link]
  55. ^ Article 20 of Constitution
  56. ^ Article 1 of Constitution
  57. ^ The Malaysian Bar PRESS STATEMENT: Malaysia a secular State
  58. ^ Religious Intelligence - News - Nepal moves to become a secular republic[dead link]
  59. ^ Article 2, Section 6 of Constitution[dead link]
  60. ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica 2009 Student & Home Electronic Edition
  61. ^ The Constitution of Sri Lanka: Chapter III - Fundamental Rights
  62. ^ Section 38 of Constitution
  63. ^ Статья 11[dead link]
  64. ^ Article 11 of the Constitution
  65. ^ Article 70 of Constitution
  66. ^ [3]
  67. ^ Articles 7.1 of Constitution
  68. ^ Articles 7 and 14 of Constitution
  69. ^ Article 7 of Constitution
  70. ^ Article 20 of Constitution
  71. ^ [4]
  72. ^ Article 13(2) of Constitution
  73. ^ Article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Basic Freedoms
  74. ^ Article 40 of Constitution
  75. ^ Article 2 of Constitution
  76. ^ Article 140 of Constitution[dead link]
  77. ^ Article 60 of Constitution
  78. ^ Article 44.2.2º of Constitution
  79. ^ Article 99 of Constitution
  80. ^ Article 29 of the Constitution, Article 9(1) of Law 489/2006 on Religious Freedom
  81. ^ Article 14 of Constitution
  82. ^ Article 11 of the Constitution[dead link]
  83. ^ Article 1 of Constitution
  84. ^ The Swedish head of state must according to the Swedish Act of Succession adhere to the Augsburg Confession
  85. ^ Article 2 of Constitution
  86. ^ Section 116 of Constitution
  87. ^ Section IV Article 2 of Constitution
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