Religion in politics

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Religion in politics covers various topics related to the effects of religion on politics. Religion has been claimed to be "the source of some of the most remarkable political mobilizations of our times".[1] Beyond universalist ideologies, religions have also been involved in nationalist politics. Various political doctrines have been directly influenced or inspired by religions. Some religious strands support religious supremacism.

## Contents

* 1 Religious political doctrines by religion
* 1.1 Islam
* 1.2 Christianity
* 1.3 Judaism
* 1.4 Sikh
* 1.5 Hindu
* 2 Extremism
* 3 Religious political issues
* 4 Religion and the state
* 5 Religion and political behaviour
* 5.1 Frameworks on religion and political identity
* 5.2 Religion's Impact on Voter Turnout in the United States
* 6 Debates about religion in politics
* 7 See also
* 8 References

## Religious political doctrines by religion

### Islam

Main articles: Religion:Caliphate, Islamism, and Political aspects of Islam

Various strands of political Islam exist, with most of them falling under the umbrella term of Islamism. Graham Fuller has argued for a broader notion of Islamism as a form of identity politics, involving "support for [Muslim] identity, authenticity, broader regionalism, revivalism, [and] revitalization of the community."[2] This frequently may take a socially conservative or reactionary form, as in wahhabism and salafism. Ideologies which espouse Islamic modernism include Islamic socialism and post-Islamism.

### Christianity

Main articles: Social:Christian nationalism, Christofascism, and Christianity and politics

Christian political movements range from Christian socialism, Christian communism, and Christian anarchism on the left, to Christian democracy on the centre,[3] to Christian supremacy and Christian fascism on the Christian right and the Christian Identity movement.

### Judaism

Main articles: Social:Zionism and Judaism and politics

Religious Zionism seeks to create a religious Jewish state.

### Sikh

The Khalistan movement aims to create a homeland for Sikhs.

### Hindu

Hindu nationalism exists in the Hindutva movement.

## Extremism

Extremist forms of religious politics include religious terrorism, examples include:

* Islamic extremism and Islamic terrorism has been evident in the actions of the Islamic State, Boko Haram, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, all of these organizations practice jihadism.
* Christian terrorism has been connected to anti-abortion violence and white supremacy.[4]
* Jewish religious terrorism, such as the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre.
* Saffron terror describes terrorism connected to Hinduism.
* Sikh terrorism includes bombing of Air India Flight 182.

## Religious political issues

Religious political issues may involve, but are not limited to, those concerning freedom of religion, applications of religious law, and the right to religious education.

## Religion and the state

States have adopted various attitudes towards religions, ranging from theocracy to state atheism.

A theocracy is "government by divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided".[5] Modern day recognised theocracies include the Islamic Republic of Iran[6] and the Holy See,[7] while the Taliban and the Islamic State are insurgencies attempting to create such polities. Historical examples include the Islamic Caliphates and the Papal States.

Map of states with official religions.

A more modest form of religious state activity is having an official state religion. Unlike a theocracy, this maintains the superiority of the state over the religious authorities. Over 20% (a total of 43) of the countries in the world have a state religion, most of them (27) being Muslim countries.[8] There are also 13 officially Buddhist countries such as Bhutan,[9] while state churches are present in 27 countries.

In contrast to religious states, secular states recognise no religion. This is often called the principle of the separation of church and state. A more strictly prescribed version, Laïcité, is practiced in France, which prohibits all religious expressions in many public contexts.[10]

Some states are explicitly atheistic, usually those which were produced by revolution, such as various socialist states or the French First Republic.

There have also been cases of states creating their own religions, such as imperial cults or the Cult of Reason.

## Religion and political behaviour

### Frameworks on religion and political identity

Understanding religion’s impact on political behaviour is essential because of its complex relationship to the individual: for a political subject, faith is at once an ideology and an identity.[11] As a result, political scientists are divided on whether to consider it alongside other ethnic cleavages such as race, language, caste, and tribe, or whether to recognise it as a separate, special kind of political influence.[12]

Daniel N. Posner holds the former perspective: that religion should be conflated with identity. He underlines that identity is important in politics not because of some “passions [or] traditions it embodies”, but because it reflects “the expected behaviour of other political factors”.[13] In such a framework, religion is treated as a fungible label that can be ‘activated’ and constitute a criterion for membership in an ethnic group.[14]

The latter perspective has been argued by relatively recent scholars, advocating for “(More) Serious”[11] attention to religion in Comparative Politics. Grzymala-Busse outlines three often overlooked characteristics of religion which differentiate it from other markers of identity:

1. Its power to transcend national boundaries. Religion is arguably the largest unit to which individuals claim loyalty (Islam claims roughly 1.5 billion adherents, Christianity roughly 2 billion – respectively 22% and 33% of the world’s population).[11]
2. Its demanding commitment by followers to a specific lifestyle, affecting dress codes, diets, political views – religion proposes an alternative lifestyle defined by “supernatural” forces.[15]
3. Its strength of resistance to secular onslaught because of abnormally “high stakes” like eternal salvation or damnation, making religion much less “pliable” than other ethnic identities.[11]

Considering these characteristics, it becomes possible to consider religion as a unique identity variable with immense power. Several analyses even regard religion as a variable so potent that it is able to reinforce other identities, and as a result allows religious components in secular spheres of society (see: Iversen and Rosenbluth, 2006; Trejo, 2009; Grossman, 2015).[16][17][18]

### Religion's Impact on Voter Turnout in the United States

A large portion of existing research demonstrates that religion not only operates as an identity but also as a mechanism that shapes political participation and behavior. Research on voter turnout in the United States points to factors such as socioeconomic status, civic duty, and social networks that affect one's likelihood to vote in a given election; many of these factors can be found in or amplified by religious institutions (Blais 2006; Smets and van Ham 2013). These religious institutions often provide dense networks that help facilitate political mobilization, which helps explain why individuals who attend religious services frequently are more likely to vote in a given U.S. election (Smith and Walker 2013; Esmer and Pettersson 2007).

Additionally, research shows that religious leaders can play a role in influencing political engagement. For example, statements from Catholic bishops during the 2004 U.S. presidential election were shown to measurably affect the voters' (Hofstetter, Ayers, and Perry 2008). Similarly, research on specific religious communities, such as the Mennonite church, demonstrates how internal practices and norms can shape patterns of political participation (Kopko 2012).

## Debates about religion in politics

There have been arguments for and against a role for religion in politics. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown has argued that "faith and state should be kept separate" as "the most sinister and oppressive states in the world are those that use God to control the minds and actions of their populations", such as Iran and Saudi Arabia.[19] To this, Dawn Foster has responded that when religion is fully unmoored from politics it becomes all the more insular and more open to abuse.[19]

## See also

* List of political ideologies § Religious ideologies
* Democracy: The God That Failed
* Secularism
* Separation of church and state

## References

1. ↑ Jelen, Ted G. (2002). Religion and Politics in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1.
2. ↑ Fuller, Graham E., The Future of Political Islam, Palgrave MacMillan, (2003), p. 21
3. ↑ Boswell, Jonathan (2013) (in en). Community and the Economy: The Theory of Public Co-operation. Routledge. p. 160. ISBN 9781136159015.
4. ↑ "Hate In God's Name" (in en). https://www.splcenter.org/20170925/hate-god’s-name.
5. ↑ "Theocracy | political system" (in en). https://www.britannica.com/topic/theocracy.
6. ↑ "Inside Iran - The Structure Of Power In Iran | Terror And Tehran | FRONTLINE". https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/tehran/inside/govt.html.
7. ↑ "Vatican City Created" (in en). 2013-12-16. http://www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/jun7/vatican-city-created/.
8. ↑ correspondent, Harriet Sherwood Religion (2017-10-03). "More than 20% of countries have official state religions – survey" (in en-GB). The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/03/more-than-20-percent-countries-have-official-state-religions-pew-survey.
9. ↑ "Religion". https://www.bhutan.com/religion.
10. ↑ Winkler, Elizabeth (2016-01-07). "Is it Time for France to Abandon Laïcité?". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. https://newrepublic.com/article/127179/time-france-abandon-laicite. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Grzymala-Busse, Anna (2012-06-15). "Why Comparative Politics Should Take Religion (More) Seriously" (in en). Annual Review of Political Science 15: 421–442. doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-033110-130442. ISSN 1094-2939. https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-033110-130442.
12. ↑ Wald, Kenneth D.; Wilcox, Clyde (2006). "Getting Religion: Has Political Science Rediscovered the Faith Factor?" (in en). American Political Science Review 100 (4): 523–529. doi:10.1017/S0003055406062381. ISSN 1537-5943. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/abs/getting-religion-has-political-science-rediscovered-the-faith-factor/8BBFFA75AA6D4AE9D2C6CF0389585C9F.
13. ↑ Posner, Daniel N. Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
14. ↑ Chandra K, ed. 2012. Constructivist Theories of Ethnic Politics. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Political Science, New York University.
15. ↑ Stark R, Finke R. 2000. Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion. Berkeley: University of California Press.
16. ↑ Iversen, Torben; Rosenbluth, Frances (2006). "The Political Economy of Gender: Explaining Cross-National Variation in the Gender Division of Labor and the Gender Voting Gap". American Journal of Political Science 50 (1): 1–19. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5907.2006.00166.x. ISSN 0092-5853. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3694253.
17. ↑ Trejo, Guillermo (2009). "Religious Competition and Ethnic Mobilization in Latin America: Why the Catholic Church Promotes Indigenous Movements in Mexico". American Political Science Review 103 (3): 323–342. doi:10.1017/S0003055409990025.
18. ↑ Grossman, Guy (2015). "Renewalist Christianity and the Political Saliency of LGBTs: Theory and Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa". The Journal of Politics 77 (2): 337–351. doi:10.1086/679596. ISSN 0022-3816. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/679596.
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 "Should religion play a role in politics?" (in en). 2019-01-29. https://newint.org/features/2018/12/17/debate-should-religion-play-role-politics.

* v
* t
* e

Religion in politics

General concepts

* Anti-clericalism
* Anticlericalism and Freemasonry
* Caesaropapism
* Clericalism
* Clerical fascism
* Confessionalism
* Divine rule
* Engaged Spirituality
* Feminist theology
* Thealogy
* Womanist theology
* Identity politics
* Political religion
* Progressive Reconstructionism
* Religious anarchism
* Religious anti-Masonry
* Religious anti-Zionism
* Religious communism
* Religious humanism
* Religious law
* Religious nationalism
* Religious pacifism
* Religion and peacebuilding
* Religious police
* Religious rejection of politics
* Religious segregation
* Religious separatism
* Religious socialism
* Religious views on same-sex marriage
* Secularism
* Secular religion
* Separation of church and state
* Spiritual left
* State atheism
* State religion
* Theocracy
* Theonomy

Christianity and politics

* Blaine Amendment
* Christian anarchism
* Christian anti-communism
* Christian anti-Masonry
* Papal ban
* Christian anti-Zionism
* Christian communism
* Christian corporatism
* Christian democracy
* Christian egalitarianism
* Christian environmentalism
* Evangelical environmentalism
* Christian fascism
* German Christians
* National Catholicism
* Positive Christianity
* Protestant Reich Church
* Christian feminism
* Mormon feminism
* Christian humanism
* Christian law
* Christian left
* Evangelical left
* Christian libertarianism
* Christian pacifism
* Christian peacemaking
* Christian reconstructionism
* Christian republic
* Christian right
* Christian socialism
* In Utah
* Christian state
* Christian Zionism
* Cisalpinism
* Dominion Theology
* Febronianism
* Gallicanism
* Liberation theology
* Papal state
* Pillarisation
* Political Catholicism
* Relations between the Catholic Church and the state
* In Argentina
* Sphere sovereignty
* Subsidiarity
* Temporal power
* Theodemocracy
* Ultramontanism
* Neo-ultramontanism

Islam and politics

* Hui pan-nationalism
* Human Rights in Islam
* Imamate
* Islamic anarchism
* Islamic anti-Masonry
* Islamic anti-Zionism
* Islamic democracy
* Islamic fascism
* Islamic feminism
* Sharia law
* by country
* Islamic nationalism
* In Pakistan
* In South Asia
* Islamic pacifism
* Islamic republic
* Islamic socialism
* Islamic state
* Islamic Zionism
* Islamism
* Criticism
* Islamization
* Khilafat
* Petro-Islam
* Political quietism
* Taliban
* Talibanization
* Two-nation theory

Judaism and politics

* Halachic state
* Jewish anarchism
* Jewish anti-Zionism
* Haredim
* Jewish Autonomism
* Jewish democracy
* Jewish fascism
* Kahanism
* Revisionist Maximalism
* Jewish feminism
* Jewish law
* Jewish left
* Jewish pacifism
* Jewish political movements
* Jewish right
* Jewish secularism
* Jewish socialism
* Bundism
* Humanistic Judaism
* Poale Zion
* Religious Zionism
* World Agudath Israel

Hinduism and politics

* Akhand Bharat
* Hindu feminism
* Gandhism
* Hindu law
* Hindu modernism
* Hindu nationalism
* Hindutva
* Hindu Rashtra
* Panun Kashmir
* Bangabhumi
* Hindu revolution
* Hindu revivalism
* Hindu environmentalism
* Integral humanism
* Indigenous Aryans
* Rama Rajya
* Saffronisation
* Shuddhi
* Uniform civil code

Buddhism and politics

* Buddhists anti-communism
* Buddhist feminism
* Buddhist law
* Buddhist modernism
* Buddhist nationalism
* 969 Movement
* Nichirenism
* Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism
* Buddhist socialism
* Engaged Buddhism
* Humanistic Buddhism
* Secular Buddhism

Other

* American civil religion
* Imperial cult
* Ancient Rome
* Gottgläubig
* Khalistan movement
* Neopaganist feminism
* Religious aspects of Nazism
* Creativity (religion)
* Nazi Satanism
* Personality cult
* State Shinto

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