Attaining Sustainable Security through Civic Space for Religious Actors
SMALL WARS JOURNAL
By Knox Thames
This article argues that United States and other governments that value security and human rights must augment their strategic planning and their counterinsurgency and stability operations with a greater sensitivity to the role of religion and religious freedom standards. Religion, security, and politics are increasingly intertwined in many of the small wars raging around the world, especially in what confronts the United States in Afghanistan. These conflicts often orbit around the question of legitimacy. At the state level, who has the right to govern and bear the predominance of force? At the societal level, who can interpret religious tenants and set social mores? Repeatedly, these questions come to a head in the form of church/state or mosque/state relations and often the most extreme voices dominate the conversation through volume or violence. If these debates remain undecided or resolved in ways violative of fundamental freedoms, sustainable security will be elusive, rights will be repressed, and conflict will continue. [link]
By Knox Thames
This article argues that United States and other governments that value security and human rights must augment their strategic planning and their counterinsurgency and stability operations with a greater sensitivity to the role of religion and religious freedom standards. Religion, security, and politics are increasingly intertwined in many of the small wars raging around the world, especially in what confronts the United States in Afghanistan. These conflicts often orbit around the question of legitimacy. At the state level, who has the right to govern and bear the predominance of force? At the societal level, who can interpret religious tenants and set social mores? Repeatedly, these questions come to a head in the form of church/state or mosque/state relations and often the most extreme voices dominate the conversation through volume or violence. If these debates remain undecided or resolved in ways violative of fundamental freedoms, sustainable security will be elusive, rights will be repressed, and conflict will continue. [link]
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