Secularism and religion

Secularism and religion

Religious minorities have always faced many problems in secular majority societies. Some of the factors that contribute to religious minorities include the migration of certain groups to a new land. For instance, due to the war that is existing in the Arabic countries in the Middle East region, Muslims have migrated to European countries like Britain and Germany. Second, some people adopted a particular religion while in their homeland country, but religion failed to grow, making them a minority group in the country. An excellent example of such an incident is the Christian religion in Bangladesh. Secularism and religion are two different phenomena, and the existences of one group possess a threat to the other while in the same society.

The religious minority face a lot of challenges in a secular dominated society. The first challenge that they encounter is hatred. Hatred is common in communities whereby there is the existence of a religious minority. The hate is exposed in various ways. The Muslims in the European country has been associated with terrorism, and there are many similar cases involving the secular majority. The Muslims in the states are treated as terrorists, despite some of them maintaining being loyal to their country. Mahmood brings out the theme of Blasphemy as a hatred model towards minority religious. He examines the case of Muhammad presentation as a cartoon in Danish. He argues that the Muslims in the country felt that it was Blasphemy to their religion. Though the secular world asserted that it was freedom of expression, there should be boundaries to which the liberty should be expressed. The hatred is even worse in Bangladesh, where minority religions including Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Shia Muslims are facing violent attacks by a self-proclaimed Islamic group Islamic State (IS) which has been categorized as a terrorist group.

The Second challenge that minority religions face in secular society is discrimination. In secular countries, there is the existence of political and social bias. The minority religions receive little or no government support because they are thought to have little impact on the political arena. Parekh argues that in German, Muslims do not receive public funding for their education, only because they are the minority religions. He also claims that children from majority religious groups such as Jews and Christians receive governmental support. In recent years, there has been a rise of anti-Semitism all over the European countries. Referring to Anti-Semitism, Karl Marx argues that in Europe, there no room for Jewish religion as Christianity is the dominant religion in the continent. He gives an example of Germany which discriminates Jewish religion followers. In May 2018, the Germany government warned Jewish men against wearing of kippah on public places. However, the kippah has a significant religious meaning, and by denying them, this liberty means they should not exercise their religion. On most instances, this leads to the minority religious people being assimilated into the secular groups due to the disadvantages that they go through.

The minority religious also pose problems to the secular society. One of the most significant challenges that religious minorities pose to the secular majority is assimilation. Some people are willing to join the religious minority due to their teachings, beliefs and culture. Religions will always attract people to join them due to their holy teachings. For instance, the Christian lessons which teach about life after death may be able to influence a secular society to become a Christian. Despite being the minority, the Islamic religion has been gaining popularity in Europe. A research conducted by Pew Research Center concluded that the number of Muslims in Europe is expected to grow, even without more immigrants. The number of Muslims in Europe increased from 30 million in 1990 to 44 million in 2010, and it is expected to reach 58 million in the next ten years. The secular society tries to discourage assimilation through refusing to grant religious minority groups some rights.

Another challenge posed by the religious minority is condemning of evil activities. In secular societies, the government is likely to engage in activities which may be viewed as immoral or ungodly by religions. Religion condemns actions such as dictatorship, corruption and discrimination, among others. They are likely to lead demonstrations against the activities. They also threaten the secular people that they will be punished by the god when they die.

The only best way to solve these challenges is through the spirit of multi-culture in society. There is a need for members of the community to understand the importance of accepting and accumulating every religion. Just as the way the nation accepted the majority of faiths or secularism is the same way, it should take the religious minority. This will be achieved by allowing the religious minority to practice their spiritual practices with liberty. Consider the issue of raised by Mahmood of the Muhammad cartoon. The Danish secular society needs to understand and respect Muslim culture and draw boundaries on the freedom of expression, to ensure that they do not interfere with the Muslim faith. This will contribute to a peaceful society.