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La mesure de la capacité politique des religions

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Espace mondial, une vision française des global studies

Sciences Po — Instituto de Estudos Políticos de ParisSciences Po

4.6 (97 classificações) | 9.7K alunos inscritos

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Afin d’expliquer comment la mondialisation reconstruit les politiques publiques et les comportements sociaux nous étudions les échanges et interactions entre les acteurs politiques, économiques et sociaux -publics et privés, individuels et collectifs- et la façon dont ils redessinent les relations internationales. Ce cours prend sa source dans les approches sociologique et historique françaises des relations internationales. This course is also available in english version: www.coursera.org/learn/global-studies

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4.6 (97 classificações)

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YL

Nov 27, 2015

The prof is very approachable and the course is very interesting

OO

Apr 04, 2019

Je recommande fortement cet enseignement de grande qualité.

Na lição

Religions

La religion est perçue comme un paramètre majeur de l’ordre mondial contemporain, mais cette vision est simpliste.

De Durkheim à aujourd’hui11:35

Christianisme et politique13:21

Islam et politique13:01

La mesure de la capacité politique des religions19:34

Ministrado por

Bertrand Badie
Professor
Marie-Françoise Durand
Professor

How now religion is playing a role

in the political arena,

and especially in the international arena?

In anyway, the role played

in the national arena

has international consequences

as we are now in a global

and interdependent world.

The issue seems to be easy

as we have so many examples

of this political function of religion,

and however it is very difficult to observe

because there are many many illusions

when we are discovering and watching

all these political expressions.

I think we have to discriminate

three levels of relevance.

The first would be power:

how religions are defining themselves

when facing power?

The second would be mobilization:

what’s the role of religion

in political mobilization?

And the third is conflict:

what’s the role of religion

inside the national conflicts,

but overall, the role of religion

in international conflicts?

If we take into account power

as the first level of relevance,

we have to observe

something very very important,

that’s to say most of the religions

were built in protesting against power,

almost all religions were organized,

were structured by opposing to power,

and there are different kinds of expressions

of this very conflictual relation.

The first is really questioning political power

and directly protesting against it,

and the best example is to be find

in the history of Islam,

when prophet Mohamed

decided to leave the city of Mecca

for creating another,

and creating Islam at this time

was a kind of political protest,

that's to say Islam has been generated

through political protest

against the organization of the city of Mecca.

The second configuration

is to be found in other religions

which didn’t really question the political power

but ignored it and tried to organize themselves

in a kind of soft opposition against the power,

and for this reason, this new religion

was persecuted by the old power,

which feel to be threatened by the new religion.

It was quite clear for the Roman Empire

when Christianity grew up,

but it is also quite clear about Buddhism

and the role of protest played

by Buddhism against the Hindu system,

that’s to say the Hindu society,

made of inequalities,

and the Hindu kingdom.

The third aspect of this opposition

is to be found in the role of religion

which tries to balance power, to contain power.

A good example is to be found with Christianity

which was conceived through

this famous theory of the two swords,

of two fields: temporal and spiritual,

in which the spiritual power

was supposed to contain and to balance

the temporal power of the king.

The famous western theory

of balance of power

finds probably its origin

in this vision of duality,

which was created and promoted by Christianity.

Buddhism is also another example

of balancing power.

The role of Buddhist monachism

in the Tang Empire

is a good instance of this monachism

which was supposed to contain

the imperial power,

that’s why sometimes Chinese imperial power,

Tang power tries to contain

and sometimes even persecute

the monachismin China.

Another kind of opposition

is to be found in the depreciation of power,

Hinduism is conceived

as depreciating the political power.

The Brahmans are considered as superiors

to the kings and the political actors,

that’s to say it’s a manner

of saying that contemplation

is more legitimate than power

and is supposed also to contain

the pretentions of power.

But in the meantime,

religion has been used

also for strengthening power,

it’s a kind of inversion

of its original function.

If we take into account for example

the cesaropapism and the theory

of the absolutist state in Western Europe,

there were conceived

as trying to legitimize the political power,

the king power by using religious formula,

and by organizing the alliance

between church and state.

The same can be found

in some Buddhist countries like Thailand

in which the power of the king

is also fueled by Buddhism

and in which the king is considered

to have a part of religious legitimacy.

Sometimes, it’s another figure:

religion appears to be a substitute

to political power,

and this is quite clear with Islam.

When the city of Medina

was created by the prophet,

this city was considered as a substitute

to this negative city of Mecca,

and this inspired, influenced,

strongly influenced, the new Muslim Empire,

the Omayyad Empire,

and then the Abassy Empire creating

a new kind of merging

between political power and religious power.

And the same can be found now for instance

in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia,

when the alliance between

the family of the king

and the Al Sheikh family

which was considered as a religious family,

providing a religious legitimacy

to the king and to the kingdom.

And sometimes, religion is a basis

of delegitimizing power.

The Islam protest is considered

as the way of delegitimizing

the political power.

It was the case for instance

when the Muslim brothers protested

against the power of the royal family,

and after when Sayyid Qutb contested

the power of Gamal Abdel Nasser

which was fueled by secularism.

Now if we move to the second concept,

which is the concept of mobilization,

religion is playing a very important role

in organizing in different ways

the political mobilization.

I would consider three figures.

The first one is this figure,

which is very strongly present in Islam,

of a mobilization which is considered

as more legitimate than power.

In this vision,

mobilization is defined as not only a right

but also as a religious duty.

If we take into account

the role played by Sayyid Qutb,

who was a leader of the Muslim brothers

during Gamal Abdel Nasser period,

the main argument of Sayyid Qutb is to say

that when a power is not properly rule

when a power doesn’t work

according to the Sharia,

the Islam community has not only the right

but has a duty to find against it.

And that’s why, in his mind,

Jihad is not only against

those who are belonging to other religions,

but Jihad is also to be used

inside the Muslim community when the prince,

when the ruler is not ruling according

to the Islamic law.

This is very important

because this is providing

a very strong religious legitimacy

to protest and to mobilization,

and that’s why, the Islamist tradition,

Islamist means this strong connection

between political protest and Islam,

is playing such an important role

in Muslim countries.

These protests can be oriented

against the power,

when the power is considered

as not respecting the divine law,

religious law,

but is also used against Western countries,

that’s why Islamism

was one of the first mobilizations

against Western countries.

Don’t forget that Muslim brothers

were created at the end of the 20s,

during the 20th century, and, at this time,

Hassan el-Banna was living in Ismaïlia

that's to say a city,

which was as you know

occupied by many western people

coming from Europe,

and especially from UK and France,

for the Suez Canal,

Hassan el-Banna used this Islamist formula

for contesting and protesting

against the Western presence in Egypt.

But something very important:

Islamism is not necessary

leading to a strong and violent protest.

There is another figure inside Islamism,

inside the Islamist tradition

by which politics was considered

as something not really pure

which is probably spoiling

and which must be contained.

This quietist tradition is now to be found

in some Muslim brothers

but also in some traditions of Salafism

in which politics is contested

but not really fought against,

in which people are appealed

to leave the city

and not being involved inside

political activities.

And last point,

mobilization is also a way

for expressing demands

and religion is playing

a very important role by doing that.

For instance, when opposition

is not very structured,

or is not able to bring

and to transmit social demands,

in authoritarian systems

in which religion is a kind of opposition,

which does not legally exist,

but we can find that also

in some democracies,

in which rightist parties are failing

or are not properly operating

or are delegitimized.

It’s the case for instance in Europe

after WWII when rightist parties

were weakened by WWII

and Christian democracy acted

as a substitute to these parties

as a way of bringing

and aggregating social demands.

Now last question: conflicts.

What about conflicts?

You know, we used to say

that international conflicts

are made of religious clashes,

this is the famous argument

delivered by Samuel Huntington

in Clash of Civilizations.

But it’s not really true if we observe

the present international conflicts.

It’s very hard to find a conflict,

which is directly coming from religious clashes,

the reality is that religion is, as I mentioned,

a very good emblem

which is used by political actors,

political entrepreneurs

and by states in their international activities.

But behind these emblems,

we can find many many political factors,

social factors,

which are much more important

than religious factors.

For instance, we can find this kind of

apparent religious conflict

in multi-confessional societies,

but in multi-confessional societies,

the problem is not clash of religions,

it is the clash of status

between minority and majority,

the lack of integration of minorities.

It is not a theological problem,

it is not a religious problem,

it’s a problem of political participation

and of political status.

This is the case for instance

during the Indian partition

as I mentioned in my previous lecture,

but it is also the case

in many African countries

in which the status of the religious minority

is not clear and is not politically

and institutionally organized.

It is also the case in civil wars.

Civil wars are coming from the collapse

of the social contract,

but the collapse of the social contract

doesn’t imply that there is a necessary clash

between religions.

When Iraq for instance collapsed as a nation,

as a nation state it appeared

a strong oppositions

between Shi'ism, Sunnism and Kurd people.

Kurd people, it’s no matter with religion,

it is a question of ethnicity,

but this clash was not a religious clash,

it was really a political clash.

Last example is to be found now

in international conflicts,

international conflicts sometimes appear

as religious ones

but are not religious conflicts.

If we take into account

Palestine versus Israel,

it is not a clash of religions,

it’s clearly, obviously a clash of nationalisms.

And if we take into account

for instance the Iran-Iraq conflict,

it was not a religious conflict

between Shiits and Sunnis.

If it was the case, the Iranian Sunnis

would have support the Iraqi regime,

and the Iraqi Shiites

would have support the Iranian regime.

It was not the case.

That’s why, there is kind of after-thought

about the role played

by religions in international conflicts

when the social and political factors

must be considered.

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