We are not able to resolve this OAI Identifier to the repository landing page. If you are the repository manager for this record, please head to the Dashboard and adjust the settings.
Liberal democracy appears to feel far from safe today. Fears of theocratic
threats such as the introduction of Shar’ia law and anti-Western jihad abound.
This article examines the dialectics of democracy and theocracy with special
reference to past and present processes of secularization. In this connection
a distinction is made between ‘secularization’ as a process of separating the
secular from the sacred, and ‘secularism’ as an ideology restricting religion
purely to the private realm. Rather than in orthodoxy or even fundamentalis
the theocratic threat to democracy and the rule of law appears to lie in
exceptionalism in the sense of a religiously motivated exemption from
democratic decision-making and the rule of law. This type of threat is not
confined to extremist attitudes grounded in religion however; in respect of
the international legal order it is state-based exceptionalism that abounds.
Notably, international human rights standards imply semi-autonomy rather
than full autonomy for states and religious institutions alike. Prior to arithmetic
rules of decision-making it is in the transcendental principles of universality
and human dignity that society finds protection against exceptionalist threats
to democracy and the rule of law
Is data on this page outdated, violates copyrights or anything else? Report the problem now and we will take corresponding actions after reviewing your request.