Societal Rather than Governmental Change: Religious Discrimination in Muslim-Majority Countries after the Arab Uprisings

Yıl 2019, Cilt: 8 Sayı: 1, 5 - 22, 02.01.2019

Yasemin Akbaba Jonathan Fox

https://doi.org/10.20991/allazimuth.424929

Cited By: 2

Öz

This study examines shifts in governmental
religion policy and societal discrimination against religious minorities in
Muslim-Majority states after the Arab Uprisings by using the Religion and State
round 3 (RAS3) dataset for the years 2009-2014 and by focusing on 49
Muslim-majority countries and territories. We build on threads of literature on
religious pluralism in transitional societies to explain the changes in governmental
religion policy and societal discrimination against religious minorities after
the Arab Uprisings. This literature predicts a rise in all forms of
discrimination in Arab Uprising states as compared to other Muslim-majority
states, and an even more significant rise in societal religious discrimination
since societal behavior can change more quickly than government policy,
especially at times of transition. The results partially conform to these predictions.
There was no significant difference in the shifts in governmental religion
policy between Arab Uprising and other Muslim-Majority states, but societal
religious discrimination increased substantially in Arab Uprising states as compared
to non-Arab Uprising states. Understanding the nature of religion policies and religious
discrimination provides further opportunities to unveil the dynamics of
regional politics as well as conflict prevention in the region.  

Anahtar Kelimeler

Arab Uprisings, religious policy, transitional regimes

Kaynakça

• Akbaba, Yasemin, Patrick James, and Zeynep Taydas. “The Chicken or the Egg? External Support and Rebellion in Ethnopolitics.” In Intra-State Conflict, Government and Security: Dilemmas of Deterrence and Assurance, edited by Stephen M. Saideman and Marie-Joelle Zahar, 161-81. London; New York: Routledge, 2008.
• Arar, Rawan, Lisel Hintz, and Kelsey P. Norman. “The real refugee crisis is in the Middle East, not Europe.” Washington Post, May 14, 2016. Accessed April 24, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/05/14/the-real-refugee-crisis-is-in-the-middle-east-not-europe/?utm_term=.7eb198775d41.
• Anderson, John. Religious Liberty in Transitional Societies: The Politics of Religion. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
• ——— . “Social, Political, and Institutional Constraints on Religious Pluralism in Central Asia.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 17, no. 2 (2002): 181-96.
• ——— . “The Treatment of Religious Minorities in South-Eastern Europe: Greece and Bulgaria Compared.” Religion, State & Society 30, no. 1 (2002): 9-31.
• Bellin, Eva. “Reconsidering the Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Lessons from the Arab Spring.” Comparative Politics 44, no. 2 (2012): 127-49.
• ——— . “The Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Exceptionalism in Comparative Perspective.” Comparative Politics 36, no. 2 (2004): 139-57.
• Boogaerts, Andreas. “Beyond Norms: A Configurational Analysis of the EU’s Arab Spring Sanctions.” Foreign Policy Analysis (2016): 1-12. doi: 10.1093/fpa/orw052.
• Brownlee, Jason. Authoritarianism in the Age of Democratization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
• Cesari, Jocelyne. “The Securitization of Islam in Europe.” CEPS Challenge, Research Paper No. 15, April 2009.
• Chandra, Kanchan. “Ethnic Parties and Democratic Stability.” Perspectives on Politics 3, no. 2 (2005): 235-52.
• Chaney, Eric, George A. Akerlof, and Lisa Blaydes. “Democratic Change in the Arab World, Past and Present.” Brooking Papers on Economic Activity 42, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 363-414.
• Črnič, Aleš. “Religious Freedom and Control in Independent Slovenia.” Sociology of Religion 64, no. 3 (2003): 349-66. du Plessis, Lourens M. “The Protection of Religious Rights in South Africa’s Transitional Constitution.” Koers 59, no. 2 (1994): 151-68.
• el-Issawi, Fatima. “The Arab Spring and the Challenge of Minority Rights: Will the Arab Revolutions Overcome the Legacy of the Past?” European View 10 (2011): 249-58.
• Findley, Michael G., and Joseph K. Young. “More Combatant Groups, More Terror?: Empirical Tests of an Outbidding Logic.” Terrorism and Political Violence 24, no. 5 (2012): 706-21.
• Finke, Roger, and Robert R. Martin. “Ensuring Liberties: Understanding State Restrictions on Religious Freedoms.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 53, no. 4 (2014): 687-705.
• Fox, Jonathan. “Are Middle East Conflicts More Religious?” Middle East Quarterly 8, no. 4 (2001): 31-40.
• ——— . An Introduction to Religion and Politics: Theory and Practice. Oxon: Routledge, 2013.
• ——— . “Is Ethnoreligious Conflict a Contagious Disease?” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 27, no. 2 (2004): 89-106.
• ——— . Political Secularism, Religion, and the State: A Time Series Analysis of Worldwide Data. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
• ——— . The Unfree Exercise of Religion: A World Survey of Religious Discrimination against Religious Minorities. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2016.
• ———, and Yasemin Akbaba. “Securitization of Islam and Religious Discrimination: Religious Minorities in Western Democracies, 1990 to 2008.” Comparative European Politics 13 (2015): 175-97.
• Frye, Timothy. “Ethnicity, Sovereignty and Transitions from Non-Democratic Rule.” Journal of International Affairs 45, no. 2 (1992): 599-623.
• Grim, Brian J., and Roger Finke. The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the 21st Century. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
• Gurr, Ted R. Peoples versus States: Minorities at Risk in the New Century. Washington D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2000.
• Hussain, Muzammil M., and Philip N. Howard. “What Best Explains Successful Protest Cascades? ICTs and the Fuzzy Causes of the Arab Spring.” International Studies Review 15 (2013): 48-66.
• Huysmans, Jef. “Security: What do you mean? From Concept to Thick Signifier.” European Journal of International Relations 4, no. 2 (1998): 226-55.
• Kamrava, Mehran, ed. Beyond the Arab Spring: The Evolving Ruling Bargain in the Middle East. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
• Lausten, Carsten Bagge, and Ole Wæver. “In Defense of Religion: Sacred Referent Objects for Securitization.” In Religion in International Relations: The Return from Exile, edited by Fabio Petito and Pavlos Hatzopoulos, 147-80. Palgrave: Macmillan, 2003.
• Linz, Juan, and Alfred Stepan. Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America and Post-Communist Europe. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
• Mansfield, Edward D., and Jack Snyder. “Democratization and the Arab Spring.” International Interactions 38, no. 5 (2012): 722-33.
• Mansfield, Edward D., and Jack Snyder. “Prone to Violence: The Paradox of the Democratic Peace.” 82 The National Interest (2005/06): 39-45.
• Neugart, Felix. “Uncertain Prospects of Transformation: The Middle East and North Africa.” Strategic Insights 6, no. 12 (2005). Accessed December 21, 2016.
• http://calhoun.nps.edu/bitstream/handle/10945/11342/Uncertain%20Prospects%20of%20TransformationThe%20Middle%20East%20and%20North%20Africa.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
• Nossett, James Michael. “Free Exercise after the Arab Spring: Protecting Egypt’s Religious Minorities under the Country’s New Constitution.” Indiana Law Journal 89, no. 4, Article 8 (2014).
• O’Donnell, Guillermo A., Phillippe C. Schmitter, Laurence Whitehead. Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Prospects for Democracy. Baltimore; London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986.
• Posen, Barry R. “The Security Dilemma and Ethnic Conflict.” Survival 35, no. 1 (1993): 27-47.
• Rieffer-Flanagan, B. “Statism, Tolerance and Religious Freedom in Egypt.” Muslim World Journal of Human Rights 13, no. 1 (2016): 1-24. Accessed January 4, 2017. doi:10.1515/mwjhr-2015-0013.
• Romdhani, Oussama.“The Next Revolution: A Call for Reconciliation in the Arab World.” World Affairs 176, no. 4 (2013): 89-96.
• Sarkissian, Ani. “Religious Reestablishment in Post-Communist Polities.” Journal of Church and State 51, no. 3 (2009): 472-501.
• Seiwert, Hubert. “Freedom and Control in the Unified Germany: Governmental Approaches to Alternative Religions since 1989.” Sociology of Religion 64, no. 3 (2003): 367-75.
• Snyder, Jack. From Voting to Violence: Democratization and Nationalist Conflict. New York: W.W Norton, 2000.
• Toft, Monica D. “The Politics of Religious Outbidding.” The Review of Faith and International Affairs 11, no. 3 (2013): 10-19.
• Wæver, Ole. “Aberystwyth, Paris, Copenhagen: New 'Schools' in Security Theory and their Origins between Core and Periphery.” Paper Presented at annual meeting for ISA Conference, Montreal, March 2004.
• ———. “Securitization and Desecuritization.” In On Security, edited by Ronnie Lipschutz, 46-87. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.