Secular state

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Secular states shown in blue, state religion countries in red.

A secular state is a state or country that is officially neutral in matters of religion, neither supporting nor opposing any particular religious beliefs or practices. A secular state also treats all its citizens equally regardless of religion, and does not give preferential treatment for a citizen from a particular religion over other religions. Most often it has no state religion or equivalent. If there is a state religion, this should have only a symbolic meaning, not affecting the ordinary life of its citizens, and especially not making any distinction based on someone's religion.

A secular state is defined as protecting freedom of religion as pursued in state secularism. It is also described to be a state that prevents religion from interfering with state affairs, and prevents religion from controlling government or exercising political power. Laws protect each individual including religious minorities from discrimination on the basis of religion.

A secular state is not an atheistic state (e.g. Albania under Enver Hoxha), in which the state officially opposes all religious beliefs and practices. In some secular states, there can be a huge majority religion in the population (e.g. Turkey, Thailand, etc) and in others there may be great religious diversity (e.g. India, Lebanon, etc).

Secular states become secular either upon establishment of the state (e.g. United States) or upon secularization of the state (e.g. France). Movements for laïcité in France and for the separation of church and state in the United States of America began the evolution of the present secular states. Historically, the process of secularizing states typically involves granting religious freedom, disestablishing state religions, stopping public funds to be used for a religion, freeing the legal system from religious control, opening up the education system, tolerating citizens who change religion, and allowing political leadership to come to power regardless of religious beliefs.^[1] Public holidays that were originally religious holidays and other traditions are not necessarily affected, and public institutions become safe from being used and abused by religion.^{[citation needed]}

Not all legally secular states are completely secular in practice. In France for example, lots of Christian holidays are official vacations for public administration, and teachers in Catholic schools are salaried by the state ^[2].

Many states are often considered secular where the term is not, in fact, completely applicable. Secularism has various grades of intensity. Thus, in the UK, the head of state is required to take the Coronation Oath ^[3] swearing to uphold the Protestant faith. The UK also maintains positions in its upper house for 26 senior clergymen of the established Church of England known as the Spiritual Peers. ^[4] It can therefore not be fully considered a secular state.

The reverse progression can also occur, a state can go from being secular to a theocracy as in the case of Iran where the secularizing state of the Pahlavi dynasts was replaced by the Islamic Republic (list below). Although there are elements such as those in the United States which would exert pressure to make it an officially Christian nation, Turkey an Islamic state, etc., such pressure groups are presumed^{[citation needed]} to have little chance of effecting similar revolutions^{[citation needed]} in any developed country.^{[citation needed]}

Since at one time all states had official religions^{[citation needed]} and as the map above shows that the situation has essentially been reversed over the last 250 years, it may be concluded that the global secular trend is toward secularism in the modern period. ^[5] ^[6] ^[7]

1 Contradictions
2 List by continent
3 Former secular states
4 See also
5 Notes

[edit] Contradictions

Some states that claim secularism or have secularism written into a constitution or law have some contradictions where religion intrudes into government. India has political parties which are linked to fundamentalist religious organizations and personal laws that vary depending on the religious of the particular community.^[8] In the United States many presidents hold a Bible while taking the oath of office ^[9] and add "so help me God" to the end of the oath, although neither one is mentioned in the Constitution. Further, the Constitution itself was doubly dated:^[10] (1) by the Christian calendar for reference, and (2) by the parallel secular calendar in common use then, institutionalized by congressional wording when the Great Seal of the United States was approved on June 20, 1782: “The date underneath (the pyramid) is that of the Declaration of Independence, and the words under it ('Novo Ordo Seclorum'^[11]) signify the beginning of the new American Era, which commences from that date”. The 1892 secular Pledge of Allegiance was altered in 1954 to contain the controversial phrase under God. Many feel this alteration was unjustified and violated the intent of the Founding Fathers, and it is being challenged in court. The United States has religiously motivated political lobby groups including the Family Research Council, Christian Voice and Christian Coalition of America who aim to "change policy and influence decisions — from the school boards to Washington, DC".^[12]

[edit] List by continent

The following is an incomplete list of officially secular states as of 2007:^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Africa

[edit] Americas

[edit] Asia

[edit] Europe

[edit] Oceania

[edit] Former secular states

Bangladesh - Proclaimed a secular republic upon independence in 1971, President Hossain Ershad instituted Islam as state religion by the eight amendment to the constitution (passed in June 1988), citing the need to do so to combat any rise in fundamentalist and/or extremist militant movements.
Iran - Became a secular state in 1925 after Reza Pahlavi was installed as Shah. Islam was re-insituted as state religion in December 1979 following the adoption of a new constitution.
Iraq (Chapter 1, Article 2 of the 2005 Constitution, constitution is subject to review by the Constitutional Review Committee and a possible public referendum in 2007)
Madagascar (1960-2007) Constitution with "laïc" removed