http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif Secularism, religion, and the public sphere Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:26:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2008/06/20/a-secular-state-must-deliver/ http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2008/06/20/a-secular-state-must-deliver/#comments Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:17:11 +0000 Mohammed Bamyeh http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/?p=260 It is hard to disagree with the main arguments of Abdullahi an-Na'im's impeccable book: a healthy religious life requires a secular state, even as political life may remain infused with the religious values of the population. And the historical examples provide added credence to the point. An Islamic state as such never existed historically, even though pre-modern states cannot be regarded as secular in the contemporary sense of the word. But there has never been a state in Islamic history that fused entirely religious and political authority after Muhammad, and it is far from obvious that Muhammad's own Medina community constituted a state or was meant as a model for any state. [...]]]> http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2008/06/20/a-secular-state-must-deliver/feed/ 1