This book presents comparative analyses of different modes of the governance of religious diversity and state-religion connections and relations in twenty-three countries in five world regions: Western Europe, Southern and South-Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, the MENA region, and South and Southeast Asia. Debates and controversies around the governance of religious diversity have become important features of the social and political landscape in different regions and countries across the world. The historical influences and legacies, and the contemporary circumstances provoking these debates vary between contexts, and there have been a range of state and scholarly responses to how, and why, particular understandings and arrangements of state-religion relations should be preferred over others. The analyses of country cases and regions presented in this volume are based on extensive reviews of secondary literature, of legal and policy landscapes, and in some cases on interviews. This book will be a great resource for academics, researchers, and advanced students interested in in the sociology of religion, religious studies, politics and migration studies. The contributions in this volume arise out of the Horizon2020 funded GREASE project. It was originally published as a special issue of Religion, State and Society.

Governing Religious Diversity in Cities provides original insights into the governance of religious diversity in urban contexts from a variety of theoretical perspectives, and drawing on a wide range of empirical examples in Europe and Canada. Religious diversity is increasingly present and visible in cities across the world. Drawing on a wide selection of cases in Europe and Canada, this volume examines how this diversity is governed. While focusing on the urban dimension of governance, the chapters do not examine cities in isolation but take into account the interconnections between urban contexts and other scales, both within and beyond the borders of the nation-state. The contributors discuss a variety of empirical examples, ranging from the controversies around the celebration of the International Yoga Day in Vancouver, the mosque not built in Munich, and the governance of Islam in cities in France, Germany, Italy, Quebec and Spain. Adopting a critical perspective, they shed light on the factors shaping different governance patterns, and on their implications for various religious groups. Ultimately, this book shows that governing religious diversity is not a matter of black and white. Contributing to a growing field of academic research that focuses on the governance of religion in urban contexts, and providing lines for future research, Governing Religious Diversity in Cities will be of great interest to scholars in the sociology of religion, religious studies and urban studies. The chapters were originally published as a special issue of Religion, State & Society.

This book critically reviews state-religion models and the ways in which different countries manage religious diversity, illuminating different responses to the challenges encountered in accommodating both majorities and minorities. The country cases encompass eight world regions and 23 countries, offering a wealth of research material suitable to support comparative research. Each case is analysed in depth looking at historical trends, current practices, policies, legal norms and institutions. By looking into state-religion relations and governance of religious diversity in regions beyond Europe, we gain insights into predominantly Muslim countries (Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia), countries with pronounced historical religious diversity (India and Lebanon) and into a predominantly migrant pluralist nation (Australia). These insights can provide a basis for re-thinking European models and learning from experiences of governing religious diversity in other socio-economic and geopolitical contexts. Key analytical and comparative reflections inform the introduction and concluding chapters. This volume offers a research and study companion to better understand the connection between state-religion relations and the governance of religious diversity in order to inform both policy and research efforts in accommodating religious diversity. Given its accessible language and further readings provided in each chapter, the volume is ideally suited for undergraduate and graduate students. It will also be a valuable resource for researchers working in the wider field of ethnic, migration, religion and citizenship studies.

Religious diversity is a key feature of countries across the world today, but it also presents governments with very real challenges. Controversies around religious free speech, symbols, social values and morals, and the role of faith leaders as critical voices, are just a few of the issues that have given rise to fierce social, political and scholarly debate. So how do states include and accommodate religious diversity and should this change? What are the key difficulties facing states when it comes to governing religious diversity? Understanding this complex phenomenon means thinking through secularism, liberalism, multiculturalism and nationalism in theory and practice. In this new book, Tariq Modood and Thomas Sealy draw on original research to present new ways of analysing the governance of religious diversity in different regions of the world. Identifying the key challenges at stake, they also argue for a new statement of multiculturalism in relation to the governance of religious diversity, that of ‘multiculturalised secularism’, which represents a constructive and productive response to the reality of religiously plural societies.

This volume provides a comprehensive overview of the various features and challenges of the relationships between peace, state, law, and education in their transnational and international context.

"This book explores the governance of religious diversity in Western immigration countries. It focuses on changes in the political, legal, and social responses to religious diversity that have resulted from increased international migration and the public visibility of new religious minorities in Europe, North America, and Australia. Contributors examine contemporary theoretical debates about international migration, religious diversity and integration policy, and present original in-depth analyses of specific national contexts, allowing readers to observe social forces at work in the governance of religious diversity. These national case studies are put into comparative perspective through an examination of both international normative frameworks for policy-formulation and the impact of contemporary world events on public discourse about the relationship between religious diversity and migration." --Book Jacket.

This volume illustrates both theoretically and empirically the differences between religious diversity and religious pluralism. It highlights how the factual situation of cultural and religious diversity may lead to individual, social and political choices of organized and recognized pluralism. In the process, both individual and collective identities are redefined, incessantly moving along the continuum that ranges from exclusion to inclusion. The book starts by first detailing general issues related to religious pluralism. It makes the case for keeping the empirical, the normative, the regulatory and the interactive dimensions of religious pluralism analytically distinct while recognizing that, in practice, they often overlap. It also underlines the importance of seeking connections between religious pluralism and other pluralisms. Next, the book explores how religious diversity can operate to contribute to legal pluralism and examines the different types of church-state relations: eradication, monopoly, oligopoly and pluralism. The second half of the book features case studies that provide a more specific look at the general issues, from ways to map and assess the religious diversity of a whole country to a comparison between Belgian-French views of religious and philosophical diversity, from religious pluralism in Italy to the shifting approach to ethnic and religious diversity in America, and from a sociological and historical perspective of religious plurality in Japan to an exploration of Brazilian religions, old and new. The transition from religious diversity to religious pluralism is one of the most important challenges that will reshape the role of religion in contemporary society. This book provides readers with insights that will help them better understand and interpret this unprecedented transition.