Secularism: America vs. Europe and relations with the Muslim world

Vali Nasr talk about the difference between European secularism and American secularism. He suggests that a major hindrance to American foreign relations to the Muslim world stems from America's ill-definition of secularism.

Question: What SHOULD America mean when it talks about secularism and the interface between religion and politics in the middle-east?

Credit:
Bigthink
http://www.bigthink.com/

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Vali
• Nasr
• Muslim
• Iran
• Islamic
• Islamist
• Quran
• Religion
• Islam
• Middle
• East
• America
• Europe
• Secularism
• Secular

[romeno182]

proud european atheist here!

[illbeatsblog]

i wait for the day when religion just stops .

[osheaad]

There is not an intervening supreme being; end of story. Religion is crazy; the sun is the source of life on Earth, where the energy that powers life comes from; if you don't understand that, you cannot claim not to be ignorant. And before the big bang, nobody knows; and I will not entertain mindless speculation. As far as is known, there are physical invariants that define the way things operate.

[mossandthesea]

America understands that a religious people are a moral people. Europe looks to making the state the ultimate giver if the law and not God.

[CallumJ230]

EXCUSE ME, these muslims dont involve themselves in society when they move to my country (UK). i live in a town of around 140,000 and nearby the muslims wanted to have a muslim school for there kids and wanted to shut down an airport so they could build a mosque, fuck off fucking muslims if you cant live in my country like everybody else.

[TheTruth8018]

Islam incompatble with western democracy my friend, you can reform all you like but the teachings of political islam will never incompatable with secularism, the middle east has been founded on islamic foundations, and that history can be taken away, secularism has failed and will fail to due so, people are coming backing to islam and moving away from this fraud of state and religion

[jihadifanclub]

@Winner8501 Obviously your country is more peaceful because your country was not illegally invaded and forced into a war. The US started all of the violent cinflicts in all 3 of the countries you mentioned. And yes most of the conflicts that involve violence in Africa and the Middle East have Western roots.

[Winner8501]

@jihadifanclub

Nonsense. I live in a country which is one of the most secular in the world and also reasonably well off. No suicide bombers are blowing themselves up every other day (compare that with the Muslim countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, or Pakistan), the murder rate is very low and in general the society is very non-violent. Compared to that, Africa and the Middle East are violent hellholes. And nearly all of their conflicts can be traced back to religion (Islam in particular).

[jihadifanclub]

@Winner8501 Secluar nation states are also responsible for the "mistakes" of the present. Development and modernization have nothing to do with how peaceful a nation is. The modernized nations of the world today are by far the most violent and are also all colonial powers. While the poorest nations are the most peaceful and were mostly victims of colonization by wealthier nations. It has nothing to do with religion because most poor nations are secular.

[Winner8501]

@jihadifanclub

I think I do, thank you very much. Blaming secularism for the mistakes of the past is like blaming breathing for murder - you know, all the murderers do breathe.

If you look at the world of today, the most secular democratic countries are usually the most developed ones, economically and socially. The most religious are usually among the worst hellholes on the planet, with the exception of a few oil-rich countries (which may be wealthy, but they're disgusting nonetheless).

[jihadifanclub]

@Winner8501 Your secular nation states have killed, colonized, oppressed and imperialized millions around the world. I don't think you know what you are talking about.