- Category:Politicians by religion (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs) (restore|cache|CfD)
jc37 (talk · contribs) recently closed to CFR discussion at Category:Politicians by religion as a delete, claiming the keep votes were the same. Noting the discussion, there was 9 votes to keep, and 7 to delete, which at least should have merited no consensus. Also the creators of categories like Category:Hindu politicians were not made aware their cats were up for deletions and much painstaking work has been undone by this deletion. Some of the queries brought were that politicians that describe themselves as Methodist , Hindu, etc may hold totally divergent views. Yet I see that WP:BLP#Categories supports categorization based on belief, especially because of the connection between Religion and politics and because even if they hold divergent views, politicians still self-identify and profess beliefs that affect their work in politics. I respect jc37's decision but must disagree, being one of the users that has painstakingly documented religious beliefs that do affect politics in the world. Bakaman 02:26, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
- Endorse closure - The crux of the issue is whether categories should exist for these, not whether the information may be relevant to to be inserted in each's article. Categorisation is more than just a note at the bottom of an article. And as I noted: "Several of the suggestions for "Keep"-ing apply more to whether such information is relevant/"notable" for inclusion in each politician's article, than whether such a grouping system should exist." - (I didn't claim that: "the keep votes were the same".) And of course the typical comment about consensus not being equivilent to counting "votes" applies here too. - jc37 02:38, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
- Categories are used to mark people who share two things in common. Politicians that feel that their faith affects their politics, or which is relevant to their politics (minority legislators) should be categorized by their religion and occupation. The marriage between religion and politics is so deep that it is impossible to divorce the two in many places. Even if politicians hold divergent views while professing the same religion, the fact that they self-identify and the fact it is relevant to notability should allow for categorization as noted by WP:BLP. BLP incidentally is an official policy, unlike WP:OCAT, which is merely a phrase used to stymie discussion. When jc talks about consensus, there was definitely no consensus to delete, so it should have at least ended up as no consensus.Bakaman 02:46, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
- "Categories are used to mark people who share two things in common." - No they're not. That's called intersection, and may be done in many ways, including noting in articles, in lists, in templates, and, of course, categories. But it's not only not a definition of categories, it's frowned upon in in many cases. (See WP:OCAT for some examples.) - jc37 03:03, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
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- WP:OCAT as noted is not a policy. The intersection of religion and politics is inherently notable and searching for politicians that share the same beliefs falls well within the spirit of WP:CAT. When we look at WP:OCAT#Non-notable_intersections_by_ethnicity.2C_religion.2C_or_sexual_preference, we can see it really does not apply. Articles like Political aspects of Islam, Christianity and politics, Hindu politics, Religion and politics are certainly head articles, since politics cannot be undertaken without politicians. Ergo this meets WP:BLP and does not fall under the purview of WP:OCAT.Bakaman 03:11, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
- Relist I read the discussion as no-consensus. Maybe a wider discussion will demonstrate consensus--though I rather doubt it. The argument for deletion seemed to be that it would cause arguments over inclusion, which i do not consider is not a valid reason. DGG (talk) 03:06, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
- Relist I'm concerned that this discussion may have improperly deemphasized issues of systemic bias. In the West, while religion is important in political life without question, it is one among many factors that influence elections. In India, for example, it may be the dominant factor, to the exclusion of anything else. I don't feel a group listing did justice to these differences. Xoloz (talk) 13:39, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
- Relist and consider other alternatives. Xoloz's argument is persuasive. It may be appropriate to have sub-categories of national cats for some nations. For the U.S., a "christian right politician" category might be appropriate even if no other religion category is. Send it back for some thinking outside the box. GRBerry 15:36, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
- Overturn deletion (or, at least relist) - I don't find the closing interpretation following in-line with the consensus (or lack thereof) in the CFD discussion. True, the categories need to be better organized heirarchically, but they are both relevant and useful. /Blaxthos ( t / c ) 19:26, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
- Comment to those suggesting relisting - Not to be cliche (smile), but I'm not sure that this addresses the closure. Honestly your comments are similar to the ones at the CfD. Just because something may be "notable", doesn't mean that there need be a category for it. And that's not being addressed in the "relist" comments above. If this was an AfD discussion, it could have been No consensus, or possibly even Keep. But this is a CfD discussion, and we have to look at more than the question of "notability". We need to determine whether a category grouping is to be kept. And that wasn't addressed by those supporting keeping the category, but it was by those opposing. As noted above (and in WP:CLS), one of the failings of categories is the lack of ability for references. And Xoloz's comment above indicates a prime example of why references and clarification would be needed for these. And I would presume citing WP:BLP, would actually suggest deleting the category due to lack of references. There are several precedents on CfD for this as well. (I'll have to find some links) And I note that several of these are actually recreations (including the Hindu one). - jc37 21:15, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
- Categories are the Wikipedia equivalent to an index of related topics. I stand by my opinion that relisting is right, so that we can determine the proper way to categorize. My argument is that, in some cases, these are in fact appropriate groupings, and that one or more CFDs that actually try to figure out which ones are appropriate needs to be held. The mass listing very clearly didn't even try. GRBerry 22:07, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
- Not to get sidelined too much here, but just a queck clarification: "Categories are the Wikipedia equivalent to an index of related topics." - No, they're "categories", groups of things, which may be organised in many ways, but are not necessarily indices (per WP:CAT#Categories do not form a tree). Wikipedia:Quick index is our index, and Portal:Categorical index is our categorical index. - jc37 06:19, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
- To restate my point in a different form, if religion in politics is the dominant factor that I believe it to be, it is reasonable to expect that readers might wish to navigate among related articles on that basis -- this is the purpose of categories. Xoloz (talk) 08:53, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
- Perhaps, but without references showing that these are truly "dominant", who's going to arbitrarily decide on the category's membership? No Wikipedian who's following WP:BLP or WP:V, I presume? - jc37 09:12, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
- Whether this assertion of mine is correct is one element that the relisting would investigate, and one reason a relisting is warranted. Xoloz (talk) 09:52, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
- Endorse closure. I don't think vote-counting is valueless, but here, the argument weight was definitely on the delete side. In places in the world where religion defines politics, those religions have built political parties to which these people can be assigned.--Mike Selinker (talk) 06:02, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
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- Not all people espousing a religion in the public sphere choose to be part of a religiously based political party. The Indian Union Muslim League is there in India. However most "Muslim politicians" like Abdul Rehman Antulay, Hamid Ansari, Tariq Anwar, and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi (who belongs to a generally "Hindu" party, the Bharatiya Janata Party) do not associate with a "Muslim political party". And religion definitely defines politics in India.Bakaman 02:05, 1 December 2007 (UTC)
- Overturn as no consensus, or relist. The closer's rationale for dismissing the keep arguments is bad - in fact only a couple of the keep arguments didn't address issues they were supposed to address, and even there, there is a good reason behind those comments when we read between the lines; the only comment that is truly worthless is the "athiest propaganda" one. Plus, religion is a defining issue for politicians much more often than when there are religious political parties. It may not be especially important if an American politician is Anglican or Baptist, but it is certainly a defining characteristic that they are protestant. Certainly, religion is a defining characteristic for any American politician that isn't protestant; Mitt Romney's religion, for instance, gets a lot of mention in the news. Mangojuicetalk 15:48, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
- Overturn deletion The closing interpretation was not in-line with the consensus.These categories are useful and relevantShyamsunder 08:26, 1 December 2007 (UTC)
- Overturn deletion - As per above.-Bharatveer (talk) 13:07, 5 December 2007 (UTC)
- Endorse deletion here's the damned that we did for a multiple nomination: I for one think that the stated religion of various politicos isn't defining: Giuliani is pro-gay rights, divorced, an admitted adulterer, and pro-choice so we categorize him "Roman Catholic" because he is, so it shows little of what someone lumped into this category really believes. So, the labels are simplistic and one-dimensional and people aren't. However, as some have said religion matters in some countries' politics. But that argument certainly doesn't apply to many of these categories, particularly where the population is virtually uniformly of a particular religion or has a state religion and the politician is in that religion: Category:Afghan Muslim politicians, Category:Indonesian Muslim politicians, Category:Iranian Muslim politicians, Category:Iraqi Muslim politicians, Category:Libyan Muslim politicians, Category:Pakistani Muslim politicians, and Category:Palestinian Muslim politicians, are totally non-defining. Can someone even find a non-Muslim politician in Afghanistan or Libya? So, any overturn should really reflect the reality of the arguments of the overturners (and no doubt they'll be the majority), and not overturn categories that really fail WP:CATGRS. Carlossuarez46 00:02, 1 December 2007 (UTC)
- There are numerous non-Muslim politicians in Pakistan and Indonesia, and many of them have attained some fame, such as Krishan Bheel, Khatumal Jeevan and Dewa Made Beratha. In Afghanistan, Awtar Singh is there, a lone Sikh politician in Afghanistan. The label is there as a label. If Giuliani says he is Catholic in the political sphere, we mark him as a Catholic politician, its that simple. Religion is generally a uniter (among those who follow a certain one), not a divider.Bakaman
- Overturn deletion religion has a big part to play in politcs.--D-Boy 18:22, 2 December 2007 (UTC)
- Two quotes:
- Wikipedia:Verifiability - The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth.
- Wikipedia:Categorization of people - Limit the number: Try to limit the number of categories. For example, a film actor that holds a law degree should be categorized as a film actor, but not as a lawyer unless his or her legal career was notable in its own right. However it is also important to ensure that categories contain all of the most relevant articles. This means that some prominent people, such as senior politicians who have held many different offices, will be in a considerable number of categories. Apart from these factual categories, for those categories that require an assessment of personal characteristics (e.g. art movement style...), try to limit the number of categories to what is most essential about this person, something in the vein of: "give me 4 or 5 words that best characterize this person."
- So (if, as it seems, we're replaying the CfD discussion here), are these politicians verifiably notable for being members of a religion? - jc37 19:06, 2 December 2007 (UTC)
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- There are really no issues with your first quote (covered by BLP) and your second quote would also validate the "overturn" idea. This would happen because the most famous politicians overtly specify their religious beliefs in the political sphere meaning that it is essential to their identity in both private and work-related spheres, ergo the Politicians by religion would be valid.Bakaman 01:24, 3 December 2007 (UTC)
- No actually, the latter quote invalidates your postulation. In other words, if they were not a politician, would being a member of <x> religion be notable for the person, so as to categorise them by it. In most cases, the answer is: no. And here's the fun part: even if it turns out that a certain politician is notable for being a member of a religion, next we'd have to determine if the intersection of the two is notable, or if the person should just be categorised separately under the two separate categories. And in this case, the intersection isn't any more notable that "Politicians who support the war in IRAQ", or "Politicians who are pro-choice". And we typically don't categorise politicians "by issue or belief", as is noted by at least a few editors above. I'm sure I can find innumerable precedents to support that. It's just simply not "clear-cut" enough for a generic category heading.(Again, see WP:CLS, which explains the weaknesses of categories.) - jc37 02:38, 3 December 2007 (UTC)
- In most cases the answer is a resounding yes. Mitt Romney's Mormonism, Keith Ellison's Islam(ism?), Joe Lieberman's Judaism all make them notable. Obviously people are notable first for being a politician, but religion is something that (gasp?) trasncends issues like pro-choice, anti-gay, ten commandments in schools. The intersection of the two is sufficiently notable in America, and extremely notable outside it, especially in the Indian subcontinent, Africa and South America. Looking at notability, the phrase Islam and politics nets about 5x as many ghits as "Iraq War and politics". The term "christian politician" nets 10x as many ghits as"pro-life politician". It is much more notable and clear cut. Religion and politics are intertwined, and the fact is that religion is the most potent force of self-identification around the world. Please do look at the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy or the recent Sudanese teddy bear blasphemy case. It was due to the actions of two Muslim politicians from Britain that Pres. Bashir, another Muslim politician' decided to pardon the teacher, Gibbons.Bakaman 18:32, 3 December 2007 (UTC)
- Endorse deletion. I think some users might be overstating the importance of religion in politics, and need to adopt a more worldwide view. In the US, it is probably true that religion plays a part, but in most of Europe it is simply not relevant. (Except in extreme circumstances such as Northern Ireland, but even these issues are better described in political or sectarian, rather than religious terms). Religion is only a factor if it informs, and is seen to inform, the person's political views. Anything else is meaningless over-categorisation, and in any case serves little purpose as two people can be technically in the same category but still have vastly different beliefs (see previous comments). --carelesshx talk 03:21, 3 December 2007 (UTC)
- That is why we categorize by religion and not by belief. We dont categorize people as "Anti-War Gay-hating Democrats" because that would be meaningless. However categorization of people's religion is allowed on Wikipedia, and as such it is a useful means of seeing the influence of certain religions on certain political spheres, and viewing the diversity of viewpoints claimed religious brethren can espouse.Bakaman 18:32, 3 December 2007 (UTC)
- Endorse, good call by Jc37. It's not that we don't want the information (we do want it) but that categories are not such a good way of representing it. >Radiant< 22:51, 3 December 2007 (UTC)
- Endorse - if the religion is an important part of a political affiliation, that will be made obvious by the article and categorization of the political party. --After Midnight 0001 14:05, 4 December 2007 (UTC)
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