DEMOCRACY AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: LIBERAL VALUES IN A CENTRAL ASIAN CONTEXT

Year 2015, Volume: 4 Issue: 4, 31 - 40, 01.10.2015

Jon Mahoney

Abstract

Perennial questions about religious freedom and democracy include, ‘what are the moral limits to religious freedom?’ and ‘what does respect for religious freedom require?’ In this paper I examine some aspects of these questions and consider some examples from the context of Central Asia. My aim is to highlight the relevance of some basic elements of political morality to any democratic state. There are a variety of forms of state religion policy that are consistent with democracy. Moreover, if we try to apply liberal political values in the Central Asian context there are interesting and difficult challenges. I consider some of these challenges by briefly discussing religious freedom in the Kyrgyz Republic

Keywords

Democracy, Religious, Freedom, Liberal Values, Central Asiant

References

• Ayoob, Mohammed, 2014. Will the Middle East Implode? Polity.
• Bayat, Asef, 2013. Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East, Second Edition. Sanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2013.
• Bayat, Asef, 2007. Making Islam Democratic. Stanford University Press.
• Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic, (2010). English translation: http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/3ae6b5ae0.pdf
• Forst, Rainer, 2013. Toleration in Conflict. Trans. C. Cronin. Harvard University Press.
• Grimm, B. and R. Finke, 2010. The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the Twenty- First Century. Cambridge University Press.
• Hobbes, Thomas, 1994. Leviathan. Ed. E. Curley. Hackett.
• Hashemi, Nader, 2012. Islam, Secularism, and Liberal Democracy: Toward a Democratic Theory for Muslim Societies. Oxford University Press.
• Huntington, Samuel, “The Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs, Vol 72, no. 3, Summer 1993: 22-49.
• Kuru, Ahmet, Summer, 2014. “Authoritarianism and Democracy in Muslim Countries.” Political Science Quarterly 129, 3: 399-427.
• Khuru, Ahmet, 2009. Secularism and State Policies Towards Religion: The United States, France, and Turkey. Cambridge University Press.
• Locke, John, 1980. Second Treatise of Government. E.d. C.B. McPherson. Hackett.
• March, Andrew, June, 2015. “Political Islam: Theory.” Annual Review of Political Science, Volume 18:103-23.
• McGlinchey, Eric, 2011. Chaos, Violence, Dynasty: Politics and Islam in Central Asia. Pittsburg University Press.
• Mill, John Stuart, 1978. On Liberty. 8th Ed. Hackett.
• Rawls, John, 2007. Lectures on the History of Political Philosophy (E.d. S. Freeman). Harvard University Press.
• Rawls, John, 1993. A Theory of Justice, Revised Edition. Harvard University Press.
• Stepan, Alfred, October, 2000. “Religion, Democracy and the Twin Tolerations.” Journal of Democracy, Vol 11, no 4: 37-57.
• Thompson, Elizabeth, 2013. Justice Interrupted: The Struggle for Constitutional Government in the Middle East. Harvard University Press.