Faith-Based Organizations and the Secular State: The Establishment of a Muslim Study Association in Sweden

Harding, Tobias

doi:10.1080/13602004.2013.863077

Cited by 4 publications

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“…It would appear that Sweden, both as a society and as a state, remains post-Lutheran, at least in its understanding of the churches that are preserved as the heritage of the established church that has dominated Swedish understanding of spirituality since the Middle Ages (first as a part of the Catholic Church, and later as a Lutheran national church). In other policy areas than heritage policy, the Swedish state has made attempts to offer equal opportunity to other religious denominations (Harding 2013). Comparing the corresponding efforts made to include the heritage of other religions in government-protected heritage of Sweden to the understandings of ecclesiastical heritage discussed in this article, will have to be the subject of a different article.…”

Section: Culture Unboundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Untitled

2019

Cult. Unbound

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Sweden is often described as a country where secularization has come comparatively far. At the same time, state and church have remained relatively close, especially before the enactment of the decisions of increased separation of church and state in 2000. Sweden is also a country where the built heritage of the established church enjoys a strong legal protection. When relations between the state and the established church were reformed in 2000, this protection was left in place. This article offers an analysis of the significance ascribed to ecclesiastical heritage in the form of Church of Sweden heritage churches in government policy, focusing on the process leading up to the separation of church and state in year 2000. Using Mircea Eliade's understanding of the sacred and the profane as a starting point for my analysis, I contextualize the significance of heritage churches is in the wider context of a post-Christian, and more specifically post-Lutheran, secularized society. I suggest that the ongoing heritagization of Church of Sweden's church buildings could be seen as a process where they are decontextualized from the denominationally-specific religiosity of the Church of Sweden, but rather than being re-contextualized only as secular heritage, they could be more clearly understood as becoming the sacred places, and objects, of a post-Lutheran civil religion and generalized religiosity, i.e. not simply a disenchantment, but also a re-enchantment. This could be understood as a continuation of traditions of approaching memory, and the sacred, developed in a society characterized by the near hegemony of the established church in the religious sphere, but also in partially counter-clerical movements, such as the Romantic movement.

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Section: Culture Unboundmentioning

confidence: 99%

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2019

Cult. Unbound

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“…More recently, the Muslim study association Ibn Rushd has been recognized as a full study association. In interview-based studies of the development of the study association Ibn Rushd, it has been shown that this process included a strong integration of the new organization and its leaders and personnel into the normative framework of the study association field, a process through which established normative concepts were translated and copied into the new organization (Harding, 2012b(Harding, , 2013a. The study associations can thus be said to have played a key role in the adaption of other parts of Swedish civil society to the "popular movement marinade" and in the establishment of close relations between Swedish civil society and the state (Åberg, 2013;cf.…”

Section: Folkbildning and Popular Movement Organizationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When researchers interviewed participants in the project from 2009-2012, many of them were active in Muslim and other civil society organizations in Sweden, several of them in leading positions. Most of them described the program as a turning point in their lives, because of the intensive training they had received in leadership and communication, but also because of the feeling of community with other participants and because of the values of democracy and tolerance the program supported (Falkner, 2013;Harding, 2013aHarding, , 2013b. Not only did this program become an important experience for the participants, it also became part of the normative integration of Ibn Rushd in the sphere of study associations, and thus of a new cluster of organizations (Ibn Rushd and its Islamic member organizations) into the normative community of Swedish civil society and its corporative relation to the state (Harding, 2012a(Harding, , 2013a.…”

Section: Civil Society Leadership Education In a Changing Civil Societymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most of them described the program as a turning point in their lives, because of the intensive training they had received in leadership and communication, but also because of the feeling of community with other participants and because of the values of democracy and tolerance the program supported (Falkner, 2013;Harding, 2013aHarding, , 2013b. Not only did this program become an important experience for the participants, it also became part of the normative integration of Ibn Rushd in the sphere of study associations, and thus of a new cluster of organizations (Ibn Rushd and its Islamic member organizations) into the normative community of Swedish civil society and its corporative relation to the state (Harding, 2012a(Harding, , 2013a. While the Peace Agent program shared the focus on personal development, as well as the focus on marginalized groups with the classical concept of folkbildning, it appears to have been more formal than the traditional study circle and thus less focused on personal autonomy in shaping the learning process.…”

Section: Civil Society Leadership Education In a Changing Civil Societymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is partially a result of the study associations having to find a new role with the increase of formal education in Swedish society, but can also be viewed as a search for alternative ways of reaching new population segments as popular attachment to established organizations grows weaker. This new role for the study associations includes organizing cultural activities and events (Harding, 2013a(Harding, , 2013bHarding, Tannå, & Lejhall, 2013). Based on the statistics reported by the government-supported study associations to Statistics Sweden, cultural study circles and cultural events have increased significantly, especially during the last 16 years.…”

Section: The Changing Roles Of Civil Society Educational Organizationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership (JNEL) is a peer-reviewed journal published in the United States with a specific focus on the areas of nonprofit education and leadership. This Sagamore Journals and Western Kentucky University Research Foundation publication focuses on improving research and practice and reducing the disparity between the two in the represented disciplines. JNEL's mission is to improve nonprofit education and leadership through the publication and dissemination of peer-reviewed manuscripts centered on professional practice, research, and theoretical discussions. Publishing articles that contribute to the development of theory and practice is a guiding principle of the publication. JNEL solicits high-quality manuscripts from authors inside and outside of academia. Authors are encouraged to submit manuscripts (relevant to nonprofit education and leadership) that present quantitative and/or qualitative research findings; conceptual or theoretical discussions; or program best practices.

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Faith-based organizations: humanitarian mission or religious missionary

Khafagy

2020

Int J Humanitarian Action

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This paper analyzes Islamic FBOs’ humanitarian approaches, programs, and challenges. Politicalized religious interpretations are also on board to investigate their missionary aspects. I design my argument based on Michael Barnett and Janice Grass Stein’s assumption on the impact of social constructions on establishing sacred and secular concepts and spaces. Thus, I study the UK-based Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) and the Kuwaiti Direct Aid Society (DAS) to examine the influence of their social settings on their humanitarian experiences. My question is “do different social settings shape various humanitarian approach, although of sharing the same religious mission?” I argue that Islamic rules encourage Muslims to be religiously committed to paying charity and showing human and religious solidarity. In this regard, flexible Islamic Fiqh (jurisprudence) allows Muslima to set various socially constructed implementations of these religious commitments. Humanitarian relief is not an exception in this regard. Therefore, Islamic FBOs lay down on a continuum based on their socially constructed models which reflect different interpretations of religious texts and their applications to understanding societal issues as well as various employed strategies of these civil society actors.

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Faith-Based Organizations and the Secular State: The Establishment of a Muslim Study Association in Sweden

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

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The Role of the Popular Movement Tradition in Shaping Civil Society Leadership Education in Sweden

Faith-based organizations: humanitarian mission or religious missionary

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