“Homogeneity is not indispensable”
The idea of a totally secular society was always a fiction. Organized religion never went away and may become stronger, through Muslims, and perhaps even through evangelical Christianity. But I don’t think organized religion in most liberal democracies, with the possible exception of the United States, is playing a bigger role in the state. Secularism, or atheism, as an aggressive ideology can be as dangerous as any other dogmatic belief. Societies don’t have to be “homogeneous” for liberal democracy to thrive. Societies never were homogeneous. What is needed is a common agreement to abide by the laws. As long as this is so, liberal democracies are not in danger.
Like many academic terms “post-secular” strikes me as too vague. The idea of a totally secular society was always a fiction anyway. Organized religion never went away and may become stronger, through Muslims, and perhaps even through evangelical Christianity. The secular state is something else. I don’t think organized religion in most liberal democracies, with the possible exception of the United States, is playing a bigger role in the state. Nor do want it to. But society will have to make room for all religions, including Islam, to flourish independently of the state. Secularism, or atheism, as an aggressive ideology can be as dangerous as any other dogmatic belief.
I don’t believe that societies have to be “homogeneous” for liberal democracy to thrive. Societies never were homogeneous. Think of the Catholic-Protestant tensions in parts of northern Europe. It is true that shared cultural or religious traditions can provide a solid moral basis for societies to cohere, but they are not necessary. The United States has a population with many cultural and religious traditions, and for better or for worse it works. What is needed is a common agreement to abide by the laws. As long as this is so, liberal democracies are not in danger.
Several political movements in 20th century history broke the laws to impose their political visions with violence: Nazis, fascists, the Red Army Faction, the Red Brigades. All members of these violent movements were Europeans from the same cultural and religious traditions as the rest of society.
Ian Buruma, journalist, professor and essayist, lives between Oxford and New York, where he teaches democracy and human rights at Bard College. Born in Holland in 1951, he writes for the “New York Review of Books”, the “New York Times”, the “New Republic”, the “New Yorker”, the “Guardian”. He has written various books, including Inventing Japan: From Empire to Economic Miracle 1853-1964 (2003); Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies (2004) with Avishai Margalit; Murder in Amsterdam (2006).
This article was published in Reset, Number 101.
