Maria Grazia Martino and her contributing authors highlight the different solutions found by European countries with different ecclesiastical law systems, different distributions of Christian denominations and different percentages of Muslim immigrants: Germany, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Italy and Greece. Churches and religious communities are actors from civil society. The state sets the framework for their activities, first and foremost by formal legal acts in ecclesiastical law. Besides this field of law, religion policy has increasingly developed into a policy field of its own. Which incentives and steering tools used by the state cause which kind of behavior, which role in society and which self-understanding among churches and religious communities? This edited volume answers these questions.

This book assesses whether a new category of actors-religious actors-has been constructed within international law. Religious actors, through their interpretations of the religion(s) they are associated with, uphold and promote, or indeed may transform, potentially oppressive structures or discriminatory patterns. This study moves beyond the concern that religious texts and practices may be incompatible with international law, to provide an innovative analysis of how religious actors themselves are accountable under international law for the interpretations they choose to put forward. The book defines religious actors as comprising religious states, international organizations, and non-state entities that assume the role of interpreting religion and so claim a 'special' legitimacy anchored in tradition or charisma. Cutting across the state / non-state divide, this definition allows the full remit of religious bodies to be investigated. It analyses the crucial question of whether religious actors do in fact operate under different international legal norms to non-religious states, international organizations, or companies. To that end, the Holy See-Vatican, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and churches and religious organizations under the European Convention on Human Rights regime are examined in detail as case studies. The study ultimately establishes that religious actors cannot be seen to form an autonomous legal category under international law: they do not enjoy special or exclusive rights, nor incur lesser obligations, when compared to their respective non-religious peers. Going forward, it concludes that a process of two-sided legitimation may be at stake: religious actors will need to provide evidence for the legality of their religious interpretations to strengthen their legitimacy, and international law itself may benefit from religious actors fostering its legitimacy in different cultural contexts.

The book introduces a theoretical framework to understand the role of religious leaders in conflict transformation and peacebuilding.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of religion and government in the United States, providing historical context to contemporary issues.

The past fifteen years have seen Indonesia move away from authoritarianism to a thriving yet imperfect democracy. During this time, the archipelago attracted international attention as the most-populated Muslim-majority country in the world. As religious issues and actors have been increasingly taken into account in the analysis and conduct of international relations, particularly since the 9/11 events, Indonesia’s leaders have adapted to this new context. Taking a socio-historical perspective, this book examines the growing role of transnational Islamic Non-State Actors (NSAs) in post-authoritarian Indonesia and how it has affected the making of Indonesia’s foreign policy since the country embarked on the democratization process in 1998. It returns to the origins of the relationship between Islamic organisations and the Indonesian institutions in order to explain the current interactions between transnational Islamic actors and the country’s official foreign policies. The book considers for the first time the interactions between the "parallel diplomacy" undertaken by Indonesia’s Islamic NSAs and the country’s official foreign policy narrative and actions. It explains the adaptation of the state’s responses, and investigates the outcomes of those responses on the country’s international identity. Combining field-collected data and a theoretical reflexion, it offers a distanced analysis which deepens theoretical approaches on transnational religious actors. Providing original research in Asian Studies, while filling an empirical gap in international relations theory, this book will be of interest to scholars of Indonesian Studies, Islamic Studies, International Relations and Asian Politics.

Haynes looks at religious transnational actors in the context of international relations, with a focus on both security and order. With renewed scholarly interest in the involvement of religion in international relations, many observers and scholars have found this move unexpected because it challenges conventional wisdom about the nature and long-term historical impact of secularisation. The 'return' of religion to international relations necessarily involves deprivatisation. Recent challenges to international security and order emanate from various entities, notably 'extremists', people often said to be 'excluded' from the benefits of globalisation for reasons of culture, history and geography. This study looks at the dynamics of this new religious pluralism as it influences the global political landscape. Several specific transnational religious actors are examined in the chapters including: American Evangelical Protestants, Roman Catholics, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, Sunni extremist groups (al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba), and Shia transnational networks. While varying widely in what they seek to achieve, they also share an important characteristic: each seeks to use religious soft power to advance their interests. In sum, these religious transnational actors all wish to see the spread and development of certain values and norms, which impact on international security and order.

In Paris in the autumn of 1989 three Muslim girls, observing their own religious custom, went to school wearing Muslim headscarves. The ensuing political storm, which continued unabated into 1990, has brought sharply into focus one of the fundamental questions related to Western democracy: the nature of the relationship between religion and the state. The 'scarves affair' was primarily a dispute between practitioners of Islam and the secular state. However, the controversy in France and similar recent controversies elsewhere have forced a general and radical reappraisal of the wide and complex issue of religion and its relation to politics. This issue of Contemporary European Affairs is a contribution to that debate.

A leading authority in the discipline, Jeffrey Haynes has contributed to many of the most significant debates in the fields of religion & politics and religion & international relations in the last twenty years. This book brings together many of his most influential essays, offering a comprehensive analysis of religious actors and their political goals. In recent years, scholars have identified a range of religious actors with a variety of political goals. The aim of this collection is to identify and examine political activities of selected religious actors in both domestic and international contexts. The introductory chapter sets the scene for the collection, providing a clear understanding of why, how and when religious actors act politically both within and between countries. Over the course of 15 essays, Jeffrey Haynes presents a survey of the interaction of religion and politics, both domestically and internationally, in relation to a variety of issues, and draws the findings together in a new conclusion written for the volume. This work will be of great interest to the growing number of scholars and students and practitioners internationally who work on religion and politics, in both domestic and international contexts.

Religion and Politics in a Global Society: Comparative Perspectives from the Portuguese-Speaking World, edited by Paul Christopher Manuel, Alynna Lyon, and Clyde Wilcox, explores the legacy of the Portuguese colonial experience, with careful consideration of the lasting impression that this experience has had on the cultural, religious, and political dynamics in the former colonies. Applying the insights derived from three theoretical schools (religious society, political institutions, and cultural toolkit), this volume brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines, offering in-depth case studies on Angola, Brazil, East Timor, Goa, Mozambique, and Portugal—societies connected by a shared colonial past and common cultural and sociolinguistic characteristics. Each chapter examines questions on how faith and culture interrelate, and how the various national experiences might resonate with one another. This volume provides a deeper understanding of the Lusophone global society, as well as the larger field of religion and politics.

This book examines Turkey’s ethno-religious activism and power-related political strategies in the Balkans between 2002 and 2020, the period under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), to determine the scopes of its activities in the region.
Ahmet Erdi Öztürk illuminates an often-neglected aspect of Turkey’s relations with its Balkan neighbours that emerged as a result of the much discussed ‘authoritarian turn’ – a broader shift in Turkish domestic and foreign policy from a realist-secular to a Sunni Islamic orientation with ethno-nationalist policies.
Öztürk draws on personal testimonies given by both Turkish and non-Turkish, Muslim and non-Muslim interviewees in three country cases: Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Albania. The findings shed light on contemporary issues surrounding the continuous redefinition of Turkish secularism under the AKP rule and the emergence of a new Muslim elite in Turkey.