Religious Minorities in Southeast Asia

2020 ◽  
pp. 135-160
Author(s):  
Amy L. Freedman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Ethnic Violence ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
The World ◽  
Opening Up

Chapter five studies the process of successful democratization in Indonesia after 1998. During the transition and consolidation of democracy, Indonesia was rocked by religious and ethnic violence. Despite the levelling off of some kinds of conflict, threats and violence remained high against minority communities in Indonesia, particularly against the Ahmadiyah. Much of the explanation for persisting nature of the violence can be explained by: firstly, the political timidity of elected officials to stand up to religious groups pushing greater intolerance on a range of issues; and secondly, the Ahmadis’ self-identification as Muslims. The Rohingya, as well as Muslims more generally, are scapegoats and viewed as extreme ‘outsiders’ in a society now opening up to the world. The chapter concludes that democratic reforms cannot be considered complete or consolidated until minority rights, human rights more generally, are protected, and that democracy, modernity, and secularism do not necessarily coincide.

scholarly journals Introduction: States, Critical Citizens, and the Challenge of Democratization in Southeast Asia

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-142
Author(s):  
LILY ZUBAIDAH RAHIM ◽  
JULIET PIETSCH
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
The Political ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
Critical Citizens ◽  
Freedom House

The political trajectories in Southeast Asia are much more complex than neat theoretical models would suggest. In particular, the diverse experience of post-authoritarian states are far from linear – often moving forward, backward, and forward again, or stalling for a number of years. Political trajectories can thus be uneven and erratic, as exemplified by Thailand's military coups, graduating from hegemonic to competitive electoral authoritarian rule in Singapore and Malaysia and lingering within the zone of low-quality democracy as characterized by Indonesia's poor governance and neo-patrimonial dynamics. Indeed, since 2014, Freedom House no longer classifies Indonesia as ‘Free’, following the passage of legislation restricting the activity of civil society and the human rights violations against religious minorities. Similarly, Thailand lost its ‘Free’ ranking in 2006 and the Philippines in 2007.

scholarly journals Minority Rights and Hindu Nationalism in India

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Peter van der Veer
Keyword(s):  
Political Process ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
The Political ◽  
Hindu Nationalism ◽  
Bare Life ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Citizenship Rights ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
The Face

Abstract In this paper, I want to focus on some aspects of the political process in India that have an impact on the treatment of religious minorities. Much of the discussion on multicultural jurisdictions deals with differentiated citizenship rights that allow religious groups to maintain their normative universe. This literature shows the tensions surrounding individual and group rights. I want to approach the question of religious freedom from a rather different angle. I want to first focus on the protection of bare life in the face of religious violence and then examine the issue of conversion from one religion to another. The issues of human security and conversion are linked in India, since Hindu nationalists see Muslims as forcibly converted Hindus who should be reconverted. To highlight the importance of majoritarian nationalism rather than political systems in the treatment of religious minorities, I offer a brief comparison with China.

The Stakes of Decolonization, 1945–1960

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Talbot C. Imlay
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Majority Rule ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Common Position ◽  
Human Individual ◽  
Post War

In examining the efforts of European socialists to forge a common position towards the issue of post-war empires, this chapter highlights some of the political stakes involved in decolonization. As debates between European and Asian socialists suggest, the process of decolonization witnessed a struggle between competing rights: national rights, minority rights, and human (individual) rights. Each set of rights possessed far-reaching political implications, none more so than minority rights, as they were often associated with limits on national sovereignty. These limits could be internal, such as constitutional restraints on the working of majority rule; but they could also take the form of external constraints on sovereignty, including alternatives to the nation state itself. The victory of the nation state, in other words, was inextricably tied to the defeat of minority rights as well as the growing predominance of human rights.

The Role of Religious Force in the Wukan Incident

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hou Yuxin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
The Political ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Media ◽  
Social Management ◽  
The Village

Abstract The Wukan Incident attracted extensive attention both in China and around the world, and has been interpreted from many different perspectives. In both the media and academia, the focus has very much been on the temporal level of the Incident. The political and legal dimensions, as well as the implications of the Incident in terms of human rights have all been pored over. However, what all of these discussions have overlooked is the role played by religious force during the Incident. The village of Wukan has a history of over four hundred years, and is deeply influenced by the religious beliefs of its people. Within both the system of religious beliefs and in everyday life in the village, the divine immortal Zhenxiu Xianweng and the religious rite of casting shengbei have a powerful influence. In times of peace, Xianweng and casting shengbei work to bestow good fortune, wealth and longevity on both the village itself, and the individuals who live there. During the Wukan Incident, they had a harmonizing influence, and helped to unify and protect the people. Looking at the specific roles played by religion throughout the Wukan Incident will not only enable us to develop a more meaningful understanding of the cultural nature and the complexity of the Incident itself, it will also enrich our understanding, on a divine level, of innovations in social management.

scholarly journals PRINSIP ISLAM DALAM MELINDUNGI HAK MINORITAS

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-242
Author(s):  
Linda Novianti
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
Normative Approach ◽  
Sense Of Security ◽  
The Creation

This study aims to encourage the creation of a sense of security and peace for religious minorities in carrying out their obligations as religious communities. This study shows that minority rights are one of the most difficult problems faced by Muslims in today's context. In fact, minority rights have been regulated in the Al-Quran and were directly practiced by the Prophet Muhammad when leading Medina and confirmed in the form of the constitution of Medina. This study uses a qualitative normative approach. The results of this study conclude that Islam as a religion that teaches its people that plurality and plurality are sunatullah which need not be questioned as long as they do not contradict the principles of faith and human rights. Then Islam observes that the protection of minority rights is the prevention of economic, social, cultural, political and legal discrimination with the aim of equalizing positions without imposing boundaries based on differences from one another.

“Bridges of Reconciliation”

2019 ◽  
pp. 96-127
Author(s):  
Petra Goedde
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Internal State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Universal Code ◽  
Peace Activism ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Politically Active ◽  
Political Realm

A host of religious individuals and groups became politically active on behalf of world peace at the height of the Cold War. Those groups tried to add a religious dimension to the debates about Cold War international relations, while at the same time pushing the religious conceptualization of peace into the political realm. The Cold War turned religious groups and individuals into political activists. These activists still promulgated peace as an internal state of spiritual harmony, common to many of the world’s largest religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Hinduism. But they added a new dimension that stressed its communal, political, and global aspirations. They merged the ideals of peace activism and ecumenism in the postwar world by relying on the universal code enshrined in the global human rights agenda, doing so a decade before the secular human rights revolution erupted in the 1970s.

“The World Forgot Us and Europe Doesn’t Want Us”

2020 ◽  
pp. 215-238
Author(s):  
Thomas Schmidinger
Keyword(s):  
Living Conditions ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Internally Displaced Persons ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
Small Communities ◽  
Internally Displaced ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

When the so-called “Islamic State” (IS) attacked Iraq’s Nineveh Governorate, the region’s religious minorities became victims of genocide and displacement. This chapter focuses on the region of Sinjar (Kurdish: Şingal) and the displacement of the Yazidi (Kurdish: Êzîdî) along with other religious minorities living there. The displacement of these groups directly resulted from their vulnerability as religious minorities. IS targeted them as religious minorities, and their current problems as internally displaced persons (IDPs) also resulted from their status as relatively small communities without a historically strong political lobby or military force. This chapter analyzes the living conditions and political framework in which these IDPs and refugees must survive and presents their personal perspectives from inside and outside of Iraq. Interviews were centered on the following questions: What conditions prevent Yazidi, Christians, and other groups from returning to Sinjar? What are their perspectives on building a future in the region? What would they need in order to return and rebuild their homes? And how do the displaced adherents of the different religious groups interpret the 2014 genocide within a longer history of perceived genocidal acts against religious minorities in the area?

scholarly journals Book Review: Author: Al Khanif; Title: Religious Minorities, Islam, and The Law: International Human Rights and Islamic Law in Indonesia; Publisher: Routledge, 2021

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 94
Author(s):  
Abubakar Eby Hara
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Review Author ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Religious Minority ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
International Human ◽  
Minority View ◽  
Secular State

This book examines religious minority rights in Islam in Indonesia from the international and local human rights perspectives. Its main contribution lies in the effort to find Indonesia's uniqueness in managing minority rights in religion. This study leads the author to a rich discussion of how international human rights through its activists spread the need for freedom of every citizen and how advocates of religious orthodoxy ​​respond to it. In contrast to analysts who use the dichotomous view of the acceptance or rejection of international human rights values, the author sees complexity in the process of spreading these values. It can be said that there is a process of modifying the values ​​of secularism in human rights and localization to make these values ​​an integral part of society. In this line of view, the author calls the Indonesian state a quasi-theistic secular state which means that Indonesia is a secular country but friendly and tries to guarantee freedom of religion and worship. In the case of minority rights in Islam, the state prioritizes harmony in society and supports the orthodox views of the majority. The minority view must be assimilated with the orthodox teachings of Islam to get a place to live. The quasi-theistic secular state continues to experience contestation and has undergone a long construction process based on the narration of the peaceful entry of Islam and the relatively moderate character of Indonesian Islam. At a certain level, this state concept has developed to be an identity and norms that become a reference for how to treat religious minorities. The author thus succeeded in showing that Indonesia is an example of a country that can develop its own identity and norms of religious life that are different from that of the Western secular state system.

scholarly journals Unity in Diversity

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 145
Author(s):  
Liam T. Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
The Public ◽  
The World ◽  
Unity In Diversity ◽  
Other World ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The 19Th Century

Interfaith Scotland (IFS) represents a substantial number of religious bodies in Scotland and the representation of non-Christian religious minorities is fundamental to the interfaith movement. In a country in which religious minorities make up a tiny fraction of the population, in comparison with England and other European countries, narratives of diversity have become more prominent in the public sphere. Interfaith Scotland has depended on the world religions paradigm to promote its version of religious pluralism as embodied in its structure and represented in its literature, reinforcing the equivalency and paramount importance of the ‘major traditions’, while groups which do not fit neatly into one of these traditions have no representation on the organisation’s governing board. On the other hand, the world religions approach means that religious groups like the Scottish Pagan Federation are re-made according to that mould in Interfaith literature, with stress on an overarching intellectualised tradition constructed from disparate sources. This closely parallels the processes out of which the world religions paradigm arose in the 19th century with the construction of ‘Hinduism’, ‘Buddhism’ and other world religions as discrete intellectualised traditions.

4 Minority Rights in Iraq

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Castellino Joshua ◽  
Cavanaugh Kathleen A
Keyword(s):  
Minority Rights ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
The Political ◽  
Conceptual Frameworks ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Building Process ◽  
Liquid Democracy ◽  
Constitution Building

This chapter seeks to examine and analyse the history and legislative provisions to protect minorities in Iraq. It situates Iraq’s minority communities (Kurds, Kaka’i, Shabak, Yezidi, Marsh Arabs, Christian, Armenian, Assyrian, Sabean Mandaeans, Baha’i, Black Iraqi, Circassians, Jews, Roma and Palestinian) within a socio-legal framework and includes a critique of the fragile unfolding constitution-building process and the conceptual frameworks upon which it has been built. The ‘liquid’ democracy that was meant to accompany the 2003 intervention has proved illusory for Iraqi communities inside and outside Iraq. There can be no other reading of the 2003 US and coalition forces’ intervention in Iraq other than that of a ‘transformative occupation’, which has operated outside the constraints dictated by the laws of occupation. The language of occupation may have been displaced, but the transformation of the political and demographic landscape in Iraq continues and this chapter examines the implications of this for the groups who continue to feel vulnerable within Iraq.

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