eligion plays an elusive role in the human rights discourse. HanochDagan Editors: ofHumanRights Religion andtheDiscourse R Historically, that discourse often employed distinctively religious rhetoric and arguments. On the other hand, religious practices are frequently perceived as a threat to a country’s liberal identity and to individuals’ human rights. Religion and the Discourse of Human Rights grapples with some of the universal challenges that emerge from this complex relationship, with the Israeli example offered as an interesting test case. | After delving into some of the classic questions of freedom of religion ShaharLifshitz and freedom from religion, the book investigates the possibility of using religion as a source of human rights and presents case studies of the interaction between religion and human rights. It concludes with analyses of the appropriate discursive framework for a dialogue between a religious tradition and the human rights tradition. | Yedidia Z. Stern Z.Stern Yedidia Religion and the Discourse of Human Rights is the product of the first international conference of the Israel Democracy Institute’s Human Rights and Judaism project. The project studies the relations among particularistic traditions (religious, national, social, and cultural) and universal liberal thought, both in general and in the context of the specific encounter between the Jewish tradition and human rights doctrine. Religion and the Discourse of Human Rights Recommended price: 80 NIS ISBN: 978-965-519-139-4 Editors: Hanoch Dagan | Shahar Lifshitz | Yedidia Z. Stern Religion and Human Rights Discourse Edited by Hanoch Dagan, Shahar Lifshitz, and Yedidia Z. Stern Religion and Human Rights Discourse Edited by Hanoch Dagan, Shahar Lifshitz, and Yedidia Z. Stern Text Editors: Shoshan Levy, Lenn Schramm Series & Cover Design: Yossi Arza Typesetting: Nadav Shtechman Polischuk Printed by Offset Natan Shlomo, L.T.D. Cover photo: “A drop of light”, Orit Shachar ISBN 978-965-519-139-4 No portion of this book may be reproduced, copied, photographed, recorded, translated, stored in a database, broadcast, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, optic, mechanical, or otherwise. Commercial use in any form of the material contained in this book without the express permission in writing of the publisher is strictly forbidden. To order books and policy papers published by The Israel Democracy Institute: Tel: 1-800-20-2222, (972)-2-5300-800; Fax: (972)-2-5300-867 E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://en.idi.org.il The Israel Democracy Institute, P.O.B. 4702, Jerusalem 9104602 Copyright © 2014 by The Israel Democracy Institute (R. A.) Printed in Israel All IDI publications may be downloaded for free in full or in part at our website. The Israel Democracy Institute is an independent, non-partisan think-and-do tank dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy. IDI supports Israel’s elected officials, civil servants, and opinion leaders by developing policy solutions in the realms of political reform, democratic values, social cohesion, and religion and state. IDI promotes the values and norms vital for Israel’s identity as a Jewish and democratic state and maintains an open forum for constructive dialogue and consensus-building across Israeli society and government. The Institute assembles Israel’s leading thinkers to conduct comparative policy research, design blueprints for reform, and develop practical implementation strategies. In 2009, IDI was recognized with Israel’s most prestigious award—The Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement: Special Contribution to Society and State. Among many achievements, IDI is responsible for the creation of the Knesset’s Research and Information Center, the repeal of the two-ballot electoral system, the establishment of Israel’s National Economic Council, and the launch of Israel’s constitutional process. IDI’s Board of Directors is comprised of some of the most influential individuals in Israeli society. The Institute’s prestigious International Advisory Council is headed by former US Secretary of State George P. Shultz. The Human Rights and Judaism project is supported in part by an anonymous donor operating in Israel and The Ruderman Family Foundation. Table of Contents Introduction 11 Hanoch Dagan, Yedidia Z. Stern, and Shahar Lifshitz Part One: Freedom of Religion and Freedom from Religion Equal Membership, Religious Freedom, and the Idea of a Homeland 25 Christopher L. Eisgruber and Lawrence G. Sager Religion in Politics: Rawls and Habermas on Deliberation and 68 Justification Menachem Mautner Three Conceptions of Religious Freedom 99 Kenneth L. Marcus Political Liberalism, Religious Liberty, and Religious Establishment 117 Richard Arneson Freedom from Religion 145 Avihay Dorfman Part Two: Religion as a Source of Human Rights Reva Siegel and the Role of Religion in Constructing the Meaning 175 of “Human Dignity” Christopher McCrudden The Glory of God and Human Dignity: Between Dialogue and 192 Dialectics Itzhak Brand Law and Morality in the Jewish Tradition 218 Izhak Englard The Right to Political Participation in Jewish Tradition: Contribution 266 and Challenges Haim Shapira “Have you murdered and also taken possession?” (I Kings 21:19): 297 The Gains and Losses of Basing Human Rights Discourse on the Bible Gili Zivan Part Three: Religion and Human Rights on the Ground Religious Discrimination in the European Union and Western 331 Democracies, 1990–2008 Jonathan Fox and Yasemin Akbaba On the Legal and Constitutional Establishment of Islamist Extremism 356 in Indonesia: Implications for Human Rights and Civil Society in Emerging Muslim Democracies Micha’el M. Tanchum The Tension between Religious Freedom and Noise Law: The Call to 375 Prayer in a Multicultural Society Alison Dundes Renteln Judaism, Gender, and Human Rights: The Case of Orthodox Feminism 412 Ronit Irshai Religious Exceptionalism and Human Rights 439 Laura S. Underkuffler Part Four: On the Possibility of a Dialogue Human Rights: On the Political, the Dynamic, and the Doctrine of 463 Unity of Opposites Avinoam Rosenak, Alick Isaacs, and Sharon Leshem-Zinger Human Rights and Secularism: Arendt, Asad, and Milbank as Critics 500 of the Secular Foundations of Human Rights Shai Lavi Religion and Human Rights: Babel or Translation, Conflict or 524 Convergence? Suzanne Last Stone From Collectivity to Individuality: The Shared Trajectories of 547 Modern Concepts of “Religion” and “Human Rights” Leora F. Batnitzky Authors 573 | 11 Introduction Hanoch Dagan, Yedidia Z. Stern, and Shahar Lifshitz The role of religion in the human rights discourse is elusive. On the one hand, historically, the human rights discourse developed in many instances on a religious platform while using decidedly religious rhetoric and arguments. As a result, religious values, such as the creation of humans in the image of God, play—to this day—an important role in secular liberal thinking and in the human rights discourse, while different facets of human rights are encompassed in the contents of various religions. On the other hand, in many countries around the world, religion, both in terms of its content (that is, its distinct value and normative choices) and in terms of its methods of organization (namely religious, social, and political institutions that promote the religious message and practice), is perceived as one of the most significant threats to the liberal identity of countries and individuals. Beyond the negative sentiment and the pragmatic threat that liberals at times experience toward different religions, parts of the liberal intellectual tradition and human rights discourse on topics of freedom of religion, freedom from religion, and the injunction of non-establishment seems to consider religion as a threat to the liberal world and its dedication to human rights. Yet, even if in many contexts religion and liberalism, or more specifically, religion and human rights, are perceived in public and intellectual discourse as foes, one must bear in mind that the identity of many people in our world is composed simultaneously of their religious or traditionalist identity as well as from their liberal identity and their dedication to human rights. The State of Israel may serve as an example of this. Israel has a dual identity: it is a member of the family of democratic nations, whose culture is Western and liberal, while it is also a unique country, the nation state of the Jewish people. The influence of both aspects—the universal and the particular—is highly noticeable on the various levels of the Israeli public space: social, educational, cultural, political, legal, and media areas. Elliptical existence, in the shadow of the two foci, is characterized by a climate of cultural dichotomy, which is a basic trait of the national life for many Jews in our generation. The dichotomy between Western culture and traditional 12 | Hanoch Dagan, Yedidia Z. Stern, and Shahar Lifshitz Jewish culture is expressed, for example, in the definition of the State of Israel, in the Basic Laws passed in 1992, as “Jewish and democratic.” The broad acceptance of this definition in both the legal and the general Israeli discourse manifests its correspondence with the way the vast majority of Israel’s Jewish citizens identify themselves: they consider Israeli sovereignty as concomitantly encompassing a dual obligation to both facets of identity—the liberal-democratic on the one side, and the national-cultural on the other. Yet, although studies demonstrate