Abstract
Secular society remains a popular concept in the Western world, with the separation of religion and politics, or the state, often being associated with progress, democracy, and freedom. Whilst states like France have become strictly secular in their separation of religion from public life, others such as the US, which openly criticise religious states in other parts of the world, have retained this intertwined relationship. When examining state engagements with secularism, it becomes apparent that there is no uniform model, and more importantly, no universal definition. The degree to which states identify as ‘secular’ varies, thereby reinforcing the need to recognise how secularism was introduced to states, alongside their current position on the secular spectrum. Through an exploration of secular introductions and engagements in early twentieth-century Egypt and Iran, this chapter argues that, in order to understand engagements between secularism and the state, and/or the politics, how secularism occurred across states is key. To achieve this, the chapter proposes a framework exploring internal and external introductions of secularism, and with sub-divisions assisting with understandings and classifications of various secular typologies.
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Notes
- 1.
Despite retaining this identity, the US is often perceived as a polity where religion and politics are generally separate. This blurring of identities and understandings of the relationship between religion and politics within a state echoes the need to further understand typologies and variations in state identities.
- 2.
The term ‘fluctuations’ is used to refer to changing levels in religious or secular engagements in each state. Changes in such engagements relate to leadership objectives as well as how secularism was introduced to each state. In Iran, a more authoritarian implementation is observed, with the longevity of ruling families presenting more continuous engagements, whereas Egypt’s more regular leadership changes and more external interests directing secular introductions, and policies saw state identity change more.
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Cooke, S. (2021). Secular Identities: An Exploration of Secular Models in Islam. In: Raudino, S., Ashraf Barton, U. (eds) Abraham and the Secular. Interreligious Studies in Theory and Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73053-6_9
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