Religious Non-State Actors (RNSA) and Development

Murat Somer ©Intl 440

Religious or Faith-based NSA • One way religion adapts to

modernization/secularization

• Why do they flourish?

• When do they benefit development and democracy? When do they not?

• Which factors determine how inclsuiveşy or exclusively they operate?

• What should be the appropriate government policy toward them?

– Ecumenical initiatives addressing developmental

initiatives ex. Jubilee 2000

– Transnational faith based organizations , ex. Islamic relief organizations (E.g. IHH): http://www.ihh.org.tr/en

– Business and labor associations: Müsiad, Hak-İş

– Educational institutions: Şehir University, Gülen schools

• Self-definition crucial but state recognition can be important if benefiting from state support

• Wide range of religious identity, organization and motivation

• Wide range of autonomy from state

• Gülen (Service, Hizmet) movement?

Assemblies of God

• Latin America Child Care: – Strong religious principles and overtones – Transformation, Education and Compassion – Largest integrated network of Christian schools in Latin

America

– "We, a body of Christians, while we strive to fulfill all obligations as loyal citizens, forced anyway to explain that we can not conscientiously participate in war and armed resistance which involves the actual destruction of human life, because it is against our view of the obvious teaching from God's Word.”

– Globalization of Pentacostalism

Hinduism: Hindutva Educational Campaign

• Faith based political movement to use education to advance religious interests

• Strong resistance from Indian Secularists

• Attempts to install

compulsory courses on

“Indian Values” which were

distinctly non-secular

Buddhism • Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement (SSM) Sri Lanka

– Self-governance and development in villages with Buddhist and Gandhian principles

– Buddhist nationalism is a political force – Overall aim: to make life more meaningful (with religious

overtones) – Holistic approach to contribution (infrastructure assistance) – Voluntary and overall very effective in improving conditions

• Santi Sena (Peace Builders): Cambodia

– Khmer Rouge devastated educational and infrastructure system and attempted to destroy its Buddhist culture

– S. Sena promotes education with children and youth with an awareness of ethics

– Provides educational opportunities for women

Religious schools

• Madrasa Early Childhood Educational Programs

• Fe y Alegria (Faith and Joy): – Faith based basic education following the Jesuit

tradition

– Focus on impoverished and excluded sectors of society

– Coordinates with local community

Controversy

• “used as a vehicle for spreading political Islam”

• Madrasa style rote memorization

• Extremist and anti western?

– Children are vulnerable to radical ideas and religious education tends to skew conservatively

• Latin America: – Historical control of educational facilities from

conquistadores to modern era

– 1960’s liberation theology

– Demographic shift from Catholicism to Protestantism

• Criticism: neo colonial Christianity, imposing domination and dependency on local churches

Controversy

• Melani Cammett: In Lebanon, Sunni Muslim, Shia Muslim, and Christian NGOs crucial providers of social welfare. Health, education, poverty allevation.

• This is true in many oyer countries of Global South.

• “When states fail to provide universal access for citizens to basic public goods and social services, welfare can bcome a terrain of political contestation.. (and).. An opportunity for such organizations.”

Identity-based NGOs and identity-making

Sectarianism: “at its core.. refers to processes of constructing and maintaining the boundaries of a religious community, demarcating who belongs and who is excluded.”

“Social welfare, too, entails processes of inclusion and exclusion, shaping both the constitution and experiences of membership in a political community.”

National-level vs. subnational, sectarian communities

• Which factors determine how inclusively and exclusively sectarian NGOs operate? Two political factors

• (1) whether the party engages in a ‘state-centric’ or ‘extra-state’ political strategy

• (2) whether it faces competition from other parties claiming to represent the same community (intrasect competition)

Why do RNSA proliferate?

• Adaptation to modernization, secularization and globalization

• Decline of welfare state; declining state ability to provide services

• Inter religious rivalry

• Neo-conservatism

• Troubled marriage between capitalism, democracy and nation-state?

• Which advantages may faith-based organizations enjoy over secular alternatives? – Selective incentives (and disincentives) (neighborhood

pressures - mahalle baskısı?)

– İnfrastructure and membership/recruitment

– Value-based development

– Transnational ties

– None of these advanages are exclusively religious. Secular NSA can use them, too. Relative advantages.

When do RNSA benefit development?

• On one hand expression of religious freedom and can help development

• On the other hand, can undermine development.

• How? What to do?

Religion and Development

• Positive Role: – “when religion motivates civil engagements in

pursuit of socially and developmentally constructive goals”

– When RNSA provide services states and secular NSA don’t/can’t

• Negative Role: – “when RNSA (1) seek to exclude others (2) resort

to conflict and violence, (3) is a lesser substitute for states and secular NSA and (4) drive out states or secular NSA

Human Security Murat Somer

• “the welfare and quality of life of a state’s inhabitants”

A. Material component

B. Idealistic and legal-political component

C. Subjective values about human autonomy and self expression

Religious non state actors

– May enhance A, B and C if…

– May undermine A, B and C if they:

• shift resources away from secularist state organizations (A ↘)

• undercut freedoms granted by pluralistic democracies (e.g. women’s rights, minority rights) (B ↘ and C ↘).

• Cause polarization (B ↘).

What should be the optimal government policy vis-a-vis RNSA?

– Exclusion?

– İnclusion?

– Dialogue and principled cooperation?

• Conflicts are often value-based. Not necessarily the pursuit of religious law or state.

• Religious NGOs should be transparent and accountable to the same laws and regulations as secular NGOs.

• Dialogue, principled cooperation and mutual tolerance

• Pluralism: freedom of religion as well as freedom from religion

Non-State Actors (NSA) and Turkish Secularism

• Foundation of the Turkish Republic – Autonomous Islamic institutions regarded as a

potential threat to development

– Official/Orthodox Islam subsumed by the secular state

– The state controls as well as supports it • Caliphate, Office of Şeyhülislam abolished, Directorate of

Religious Affairs (Diyanet) founded

• Mosques are subsidized and imams salaried

• Article 24: it is the states duty to supervise all religious and moral education

– Autonomous Islam faced more restriction

• Banning of Sufi Organizations (many went underground)

• Waqfs (religious foundations) were subsumed by the state and lost their autonomy

• Diyanet does not recognize minority Muslim shrines such as the “cemevi”s of Alevi Muslims

• Results:

– Turkey became one of the most developed and democratic in Muslim world (A↗ and partly B ↗)

But:

– Negative effect on human security through impinging upon personal freedoms (partly B ↘ and C ↘)

– Turkey designated as a “partially free” democracy by international NGO’s (B ↘ or ↗?)

– Legal freedoms but not always actual freedoms and equality (B ↘ or ↗?). For example women have equal legal rights but only ¼ of them work

2002- Under the AKP

• Material Growth

• European Union Reforms

Subjective human security under the AKP

• AKP government systematically favoring graduates of Imam-Hatip schools

• Pro-Islamic businesses and powerful religious movements flourish

• Volunteerism based social security promoted over state run welfare system, ceding control to the religious sphere (shift resources away from state)

• Privatization of formerly secular sphere institutions

Subjective human security under the AKP

• Polarization

• Promotion of conservative conceptions of social life

• Different values concerning social pluralism and secularism

• All this improves human security for some but may decrease for others

• Improves some components of human security but decreases others

The Janus-Faced Impact

• AKP enhances human security:

– Economic growth

– Political stability and democratic reforms

– More diversity (religious NSA’s) in civil society

The Janus-Faced Impact Cont…

• AKP rule decreases human security: – More diversity in civil society (with inclusion of religion

NSA) and but not necessarily pluralism (acceptance and tolerance)

– Divergence of values on social pluralism and secularism – Secondary role of women (or a different understanding of

women’s emancipation) – Polarization (with secular society) as a loss of human

security

– Loss of secular freedoms • Attack on and loss of press freedom by AKP • Will the rise of the headscarf pressure non-religious women to

conform to “good morals”?

Alcohol

• 2005 – 2008, 12.6 percent decrease in premises selling alcohol in Turkey (Nielsen)

• Ministry of Internal Affairs decree severely restricts businesses ability to serve alcoholic beverages

• Individual municipalities issue harsh restrictive decrees against alcohol related businesses

» Arat

• Somer: Tension between Secular and Religious understanding of human security. E.g.

– Individual freedom offends religious sensibilities

– Secular actors may not be opposed to religious symbols such as the headscarf as an “adult decision”

– But religious groups feel that children should be immersed in religion early

• Since 2013: State attempt to control RNSA this time by the religious AKP government

• More recent examples:

• See Murat Somer: “Whither with Secularism or Just Undemocratic Laiklik? The Evolution and Future of Secularism under the AKP” pp. 23-49 in Valeria Talbot, ed, The Uncertain Path of the ‘New Turkey,’ (Milan: ISPI, Instituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale, 2015):

• https://ku.academia.edu/MURATSOMER