Contemporary nation-states have seen the rise of religious pluralism within their borders, brought about by global migration and the challenge of radical religious movements. Secular States and Religious Diversity explores the meaning of secularism and religious freedom in these new contexts. The contributors chart the impact of globalization, the varying forms of secularism in Western states, and the different kinds of relations between states and religious institutions in the historical traditions and contemporary politics of Islamic, Indic, and Chinese societies. They also examine the limitations and dilemmas of governmental responses to religious diversity, and grapple with the question of how secular states deal (and should deal) with such pluralism. This volume brings in perspectives from the non-Western world and engages with viewpoints that might increase states’ capacities to accommodate religious diversity positively.

Religious diversity is a key feature of countries across the world today, but it also presents governments with very real challenges. Controversies around religious free speech, symbols, social values and morals, and the role of faith leaders as critical voices, are just a few of the issues that have given rise to fierce social, political and scholarly debate. So how do states include and accommodate religious diversity and should this change? What are the key difficulties facing states when it comes to governing religious diversity? Understanding this complex phenomenon means thinking through secularism, liberalism, multiculturalism and nationalism in theory and practice. In this new book, Tariq Modood and Thomas Sealy draw on original research to present new ways of analysing the governance of religious diversity in different regions of the world. Identifying the key challenges at stake, they also argue for a new statement of multiculturalism in relation to the governance of religious diversity, that of ‘multiculturalised secularism’, which represents a constructive and productive response to the reality of religiously plural societies.

2021 ISSR Best Book Award (International Society for the Sociology of Religion) Transnational migration has contributed to the rise of religious diversity and has led to profound changes in the religious make-up of society across the Western world. As a result, societies and nation-states have faced the challenge of crafting ways to bring new religious communities into existing institutions and the legal frameworks. Regulating Difference explores how the state regulates religious diversity and examines the processes whereby religious diversity and expression becomes part of administrative landscapes of nation-states and people’s everyday lives. Arguing that concepts of nationhood are key to understanding the governance of religious diversity, Regulating Difference employs a transatlantic comparison of the Spanish region of Catalonia and the Canadian province of Quebec to show how processes of nation-building, religious heritage-making and the mobilization of divergent interpretations of secularism are co-implicated in shaping religious diversity. It argues that religious diversity has become central for governing national and urban spaces.

Policies dealing with religious diversity in liberal democratic states—as well as the established institutions that enforce those policies—are increasingly under pressure. Politics and political theory are caught in a trap between the fully secularized state and neo-corporate regimes of selective cooperation between states and organized religion. This volume proposes an original, comprehensive, and multidisciplinary approach to problems of governing religious diversity—combining moral and political philosophy, constitutional law, history, sociology, and religious anthropology. Drawing on such diverse scholarship, Secularism or Democracy? proposes an associational governance—a moderately libertarian, flexible variety of democratic institutional pluralism—as the plausible third way to overcome the inherent deficiencies of the predominant models.

New forms of religious diversity have emerged that demand specific policies from the state, putting pressure on the established practices of religious governance. European societies have been a testing ground for many of these changes, but for decades Canada has been pioneering the management of diversity, thus offering interesting similarities and contrasts with the former. This book deals with the diverging routes of political secularization in Europe and Canada, the patterns of religious governance, the practices for accommodating the demands of religious minorities concerning their legal regulation, the management of public institutions, and the provision of social services.

"e;This book fills a gap in authoritative analyses of the causes of inter-religious conflict and the practice of religious toleration. The rise of more overt expressions of Islamic piety and greater bureaucratization of Islam in both Indonesia and Malaysia over several decades have tested the "e;live and let live"e; philosophy that used to characterize religious expression in these nations. The analyses in each chapter break new ground with contextualized studies of particular and recent incidents of conflict or harassment in a variety of areas -- from urban centres to more remote and, even complex, locations. As these studies show, legislation stands or falls on the ability and determination of local authorities to enforce it.This volume is essential reading for understanding the dynamics of state-religious interaction in Muslim majority nations and the crucial role civil society organizations play in negotiating interfaith toleration."e; --Emeritus Professor Virginia Hooker FAHA, Department of Political & Social Change,College of Asia & the Pacific, The Australian National University

Should the state be secular or religious. Here the author seeks to determine the extent of the role of religion in political life.

Today, pluralism is increasingly the norm and can be seen as a permanent characteristic of modernity. As seen in world events, religion has not become irrelevant but more diverse, giving rise to a complex web of religion and belief minorities, together with intra-plural majorities. Nations seek ways to implement the ideal of freedom of religion, but as this book shows, whether East or West, in the global North or the South, there is no simple formalism for accommodating religious diversity. Different faith communities have competing needs and demands for the same social space, with tensions inevitably arising. This book highlights responses from liberal democracies which enshrine secularism into their constitutions to other constitutions where religion and ethnic identity are enshrined to prioritise their ethno-religious majority. Western and Asian countries encounter different obstacles and challenges. With analysis from 19 international scholars, the book explores different obstacles and responses to accommodation of religious minorities in a range of jurisdictions. In a globalised world, it will be invaluable for comparative legal scholars, for law and religion scholars, researchers and students, and decision-makers, e.g., governments, non-governmental organisations, and for those who seek to better understand the challenges of our time.

This book highlights the relationship between the state and religion in India and Europe. It problematizes the idea of secularism and questions received ideas about secularism. It also looks at how Europe and India can learn from each other about negotiating religious space and identity in this globalised post-9/11 world.