Secularism: Principle Involves the Exclusion of Religion

Secularism
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Secularism is a principle that involves the exclusion of religion from public Parts of the society such as education and the state. According to this principle, there is no religion that is great than the other before the law and therefore religious institutions are completely separated from the state. The main objective of applying the secularism principle is to ensure that the affairs of the state are not in any way interfered with religious groups. This essay will compare and contrast the ideologies of secularism at work in in liberal multiculturalist states such as Canada and the US and Republican states deploying concepts of strong’ secularism such as France and Turkey. In addition to that, this essay will also discuss historical specificity, concepts of public sphere, public order, national identity, citizenship and public policy. The paper will also highlight the advantages and limitations of each ideology for managing religious pluralism using evidence from the cases studies this term.
Countries such as the US and Canada are liberal multiculturalist states that embrace some elements of religion in their political systems as a way of managing religious pluralism. Therefore, it is always a challenge to maintain secularism in such states because different religious groups and different sets of beliefs define their political systems. According to Rayside (2010, p. 280), the religious right constituency in the Conservative Party in Canada has always threatened to leave the party because they feel that most of their opinion are always ignored. On the other hand, the organizational resources of evangelical Protestants and the sheer size of the religious right in the US also enhance the need to combine state affairs and religious beliefs. Moreover, there is a large constituency of believers when it comes to neoliberal deregulation as well as the traditional moral regulation and this has happened because of the individualism of the American protestant faith.
Furthermore, the Progressive Conservative Party still consists of many activists with strong views on the issue of sexual diversity despite the fact that the party has powerful disciplinary tools. There have always been tensions within political parties since the mid-2000s when debates on sexual diversity emerged in Canada (Rayside, 2011, p. 279). The policies that are prioritized by neoliberals in Canada contradict the policy claims of moral traditionalist and this has always led to divisions in political parties. In addition to that, there are contrasting opinions when it come sharia-based family law arbitration in Canada. Supporters of the idea claim that Muslim family law tribunals should be legalized because of the fact that Canada has a multiculturalism policy. On the hand, those against the idea claim that the multiculturalism policy should be abandoned if at all it can be used to justify sharia courts. They argue that multiculturalism can turn into a dangerous policy if it can be invoked to when defending the adoption of sharia courts (Kymlicka, 2005, p. 1). Some commentators argue that the defenders of the Muslim family law tribunals abuse the multiculturalism policy.
There have always b...