Religious democracy

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Religious democracy[1] is a form of government where the values of a particular religion have an effect on the laws and rules, often when most of the population is a member of the religion.

Democracy where coincides with certain things, it can be secular or religious.[2] But what occurs is coincidence, and not unity. Relativistic liberalism and democracy are not identical. According to some, democracy is not violated when a faith is embraced; it is violated when a particular belief is imposed or disbelief is punished.[citation needed]

Criticism

Two major ideas against religious democracy could be recognized.[3][4]

  • From the Secularism point of view, the ideals of a democratic society and a secular state are unified. Therefore the firm principle of separation of religion and state is implicit such that without this separation there can be no freedom from tyranny. Absolute sovereignty of the people dominates in this idea. Religion should be set aside from the working of government in order to establish democracy and freedom.
  • From the Legalism point of view, democracy can never enjoy a general acceptance in a religious society. Anything outside of the rigid, but pervasive, interpretation of the religious texts is rejected and the absolute sovereignty of God prevails such that there is no role for the sovereignty of people. The less freedom a society enjoys, the stronger religion will be.

Examples

Historical democracies with state sponsored religious laws:

Contemporary democracies with state religions:

Contemporary states with state religions that claim to be democratic but are not recognised as such by the international community:

See also

References

  1. ↑ AbdolKarim Soroush :: عبدالکريم سروش
  2. ↑ 1904063187 : 9781904063186:Theory of Religious Democracy
  3. ↑ WorldWide Religious News-President Says Democracy Conforms With Religion in Iran
  4. ↑ http://www.watsoninstitute.org/bjwa/archive/9.2/Iran/Schmid.pdf
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