OXFORD,
Miss. – In theory, many Americans believe in the separation of church
and government. But how far should governments go to ensure that
separation? Should government allow public displays of religion – for
example, an invocation at a presidential inauguration? Or should
government prohibit all public displays of religion?
These
questions are to be tackled Monday (Feb. 23) at the University of
Mississippi by visiting lecturer Ahmet Kuru, deputy director of the
Center for the Study of Democracy, Tolerance and Religion at Columbia
University. Sponsored by the Croft Institute for International Studies,
the free, public presentation is set for 7 p.m. in Croft 107.
Kuru’s
address, “Secular States and Religions: The United States, France and
Turkey,” is the topic of his award-winning dissertation, which will be
published as a book next month by Cambridge University Press.
“At
Croft, we examine how different issues are thought and talked about in
different international contexts,” said William Casper Schenck, Croft
assistant director. “Anyone who’s interested in understanding the place
of religion in modern culture would get a lot out of this lecture.”
In the U.S., religion is fairly open and visible, which is not the case in nations such as France and Turkey, where public displays of religion are generally prohibited, said Kuru, who also is assistant professor of political science at San Diego State University.
“State policies toward religion are the result of ideological struggles between the defenders of two types of secularism,” he said. “In the U.S., the dominant ideology is what I call ‘passive secularism.’ The dominant ideology in France and Turkey, however, is ‘assertive secularism,’ which aims to establish a secular public sphere and confine religion to the private domain.”
As new governments were taking root in both France and Turkey, lawmakers had fresh memories of the ruling elite – royalty who ruled for generations and in some cases were thought of as gods themselves, he said. Separation of religion and government was seen as necessary for the fledgling nations to succeed, he said.
“There was no such ‘ancien regime’ in America,” he said, adding that the U.S. consequently evolved with fewer restrictions on the mingling of God and government.
“A recent example is the ban on wearing headscarves,” he said. “There is a sharp policy distinction between the United States, which allows students to display religious symbols; France, which bans such symbols in public schools; and Turkey, which prohibits them in all educational institutions, both public and private schools and universities.”
Kuru’s talk should illuminate some of these issues, Schenck said.
“In the U.S., people tend to feel strongly about the separation of church and state, but we also have a very strong religious culture that influences policy,” Schenck said. “The comparative examples of France and Turkey can reveal some of the issues involved here and how nations have resolved or failed to resolve them.”
For more information on this event or the Croft Institute, go to http://www.croft.olemiss.edu/home/. For assistance related to a disability, call 662-915-1500.