THEME
Policy debates about how to combat religious extremism, terrorism, and violence have typically pitted supporters of military and police force against advocates of economic and social development. A vital policy tool -- the advancement of religious freedom -- has been neglected. This thematic area will explore the causal mechanisms linking religious freedom and violence. Is the suppression of religious freedom linked to religiously-motivated violence or terrorism? Do restrictions on religious liberty undermine moderates or reformers who might otherwise oppose extremism? Can the advancement of religious freedom catalyze the kinds of political theologies that support democratic governance and counter religious extremism and terrorism? The project will ask these and other questions of diverse societies around the world.
OTHER SUB-THEMES
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PROJECT LEADERS
Thomas Farr
Thomas F. Farr is Director of the Religious Freedom Project at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and a Visiting Associate...
Timothy Shah
Timothy Samuel Shah is Associate Director of the Religious Freedom Project at the Berkley Center For Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and...
ASSOCIATE SCHOLARS
José Casanova
José Casanova is one of the world's top scholars in the sociology of religion. He is a professor at the Department of Sociology at Georgetown...
Jean Bethke Elshtain
Jean Bethke Elshtain is the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago, where she also has...
William Inboden
William Inboden is Assistant Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and Distinguished Scholar at the Strauss Center for International...
David Novak
David Novak holds the J. Richard and Dorothy Shiff Chair of Jewish Studies as Professor of the Study of Religion and Professor of Philosophy at the...
Daniel Philpott
Daniel Philpott is exploring Catholic and Protestant contributions to democracy from the years 1800-2000 for the Christianity and Freedom Project....
Mona Siddiqui
Mona Siddiqui, OBE is Professor of Islamic and Inter-religious Studies and Assistant Principal for Religion and Society at the University of...
Monica Duffy Toft
Monica Duffy Toft is Associate Professor of Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and Director of the Initiative on Religion in...
Roger Trigg
Roger Trigg, of St Cross College, Oxford, is Senior Research Fellow in the Ian Ramsey Centre, University of Oxford, and a member of both the...
PROJECT STAFF
A.J. Nolte
A.J. Nolte joined the RFP at the beginning of October 2012, after two years as a research assistant at the Center for Complex Operations, National...
Kyle Vander Meulen
Kyle Vander Meulen joined the Berkley Center in January 2011. Before coming to the Center, he completed his master's studies in Divinity at the...
Religious Conflict and the Future of a Democratic Egypt
The Egyptian Revolution ended the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak and began a political transition towards democracy. During the public protests in Tahrir square Egyptian Muslims and Coptic Christians gathered side by side to protest the government and demand their rights. Sectarian violence following Mubarak’s removal, however, has escalated between Egyptian Muslims and the minority Coptic community. Religion will be an important factor for the future of Egypt and its potential to construct a stable and democratic state. The following essays consider what role religion should play in the shaping of Egyptian democracy, the value and importance of religious freedom to the stability of the state, the involvement of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, previously banned from political participation, and finally the international policies that America and other nations should adopt towards Egypt and other fragile states emerging from the Arab Spring.
Scholar Essays
June 3, 2011
Will Islam impel or impede democracy in Egypt? There is probably no question whose answer is less clear and more hotly debated than this one in the context of Egypt’s current transition. It is worth remembering that, especially in the Islamic world, democratic institutions that involve elections...
June 3, 2011
As the heady days of public demonstrations fade into history, key questions about Egypt’s future remain. Will Egypt move towards a more open democratic system? Will the rights of religious minorities (e.g. atheists, Copts, non-Muslims, secularists) be respected? Or, will Egypt move toward a...
June 3, 2011
As Egypt moves towards democracy, the issue of religious freedom is of central importance. Such freedom has to be at the root of all democracy. If individuals are not free to hold or put into practice beliefs about what is most important in life, and what is most worth pursuing, they cannot...
June 3, 2011
There will be no moving toward a truly free and stable democracy in Egypt unless Egypt also moves toward religious freedom. But what does it mean to insist that Egypt move to respect religious freedom in its current political transition? On May 19, 2011, President Obama—to his credit—talked...
June 3, 2011
The Obama Administration’s challenges in responding to the Arab Spring fall into two categories. The first is developing an actual region-wide strategy for these unprecedented upheavals. The Administration’s responses to the convulsions thus far can charitably be described as ad hoc and reactive....