Religion & Politics New Developments Worldwide Edited by Roy C. Amore Printed Edition of the Special Issue Published in Religions www.mdpi.com/journal/religions Religion and Politics Religion and Politics: New Developments Worldwide Special Issue Editor Roy C. Amore MDPI • Basel • Beijing • Wuhan • Barcelona • Belgrade Special Issue Editor Roy C. Amore University of Windsor Canada Editorial Office MDPI St. Alban-Anlage 66 4052 Basel, Switzerland This is a reprint of articles from the Special Issue published online in the open access journal Religions (ISSN 2077-1444) from 2018 to 2019 (available at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special issues/politics) For citation purposes, cite each article independently as indicated on the article page online and as indicated below: LastName, A.A.; LastName, B.B.; LastName, C.C. Article Title. Journal Name Year, Article Number, Page Range. ISBN 978-3-03921-429-7 (Pbk) ISBN 978-3-03921-430-3 (PDF) Cover image courtesy of Roy C. Amore. c 2019 by the authors. Articles in this book are Open Access and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. The book as a whole is distributed by MDPI under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. Contents About the Special Issue Editor ...................................... vii Preface to ”Religion and Politics: New Developments Worldwide” ................ ix Yashasvini Rajeshwar and Roy C. Amore Coming Home (Ghar Wapsi) and Going Away: Politics and the Mass Conversion Controversy in India Reprinted from: Religions 2019, 10, 313, doi:10.3390/rel10050313 ................... 1 Pashaura Singh How Avoiding the Religion–Politics Divide Plays out in Sikh Politics Reprinted from: Religions 2019, 10, 296, doi:10.3390/rel10050296 ................... 17 S. Romi Mukherjee Je Suis Charlie or the Fragility of the Republican Sacred: On January 11th, 2015 and Its Afterlives Reprinted from: Religions 2019, 10, 202, doi:10.3390/rel10030202 ................... 41 Byung Wook Jun and Sung Man Yoon Taxpayer’s Religiosity, Religion, and the Perceptions of Tax Equity: Case of South Korea Reprinted from: Religions 2018, 9, 333, doi:10.3390/rel9110333 .................... 65 Tak-ling Terry Woo Religion and Politics in the People’s Republic of China: An Appraisal of Continuing Mistrust and Misunderstanding Reprinted from: Religions 2019, 10, 333, doi:10.3390/rel10050333 ................... 80 Sulistiyono Susilo and Reza Pahlevi Dalimunthe Moderate Southeast Asian Islamic Education as a Parent Culture in Deradicalization: Urgencies, Strategies, and Challenges Reprinted from: Religions 2019, 10, 45, doi:10.3390/rel10010045 ....................110 Babajimi Oladipo Faseke Nigeria and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation: A Discourse in Identity, Faith and Development, 1969–2016 Reprinted from: Religions 2019, 10, 156, doi:10.3390/rel10030156 ...................126 Rose T. Caraway The Spiritual Dimensions of the Permaculture Movement in Cuba Reprinted from: Religions 2018, 9, 342, doi:10.3390/rel9110342 ....................138 Robert W. McGee, Serkan Benk and Bahadır Y ¨uzba¸sı Should Governments Tax the Rich and Subsidize the Poor? A Comparative Study of Muslim and Christian Respondents Reprinted from: Religions 2019, 10, 72, doi:10.3390/rel10020072 ....................156 Daniel Levine Reflections on the Evolution of the State of the Art Reprinted from: Religions 2019, 10, 99, doi:10.3390/rel10020099 ....................166 v About the Special Issue Editor Roy C. Amore researches and writes about the interaction of religion and politics all over the world, but with a special interest in Asian religions. Having earned his Ph.D. in Religion, specializing in Buddhism, at Columbia University in New York City, he has taught for most of his career at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada, where he is Professor at the Department of Political Science and has previously served as Associate Dean. His personal activities include interfaith dialogue, engaged Buddhism, and traveling with his wife Michelle Morrison. He is the author of numerous books, including Religion and Politics in the World’s Hot Spots (Sloan); three world religions textbooks, coauthored with Amir Hussain (OUP)—World Religions: Eastern Traditions (5th ed.), World Religions: Western Traditions (5th ed.), and A Concise Introduction to World Religions (4th ed.); Two Masters, One Message, about the parallels between the lives and teachings of Buddha and Jesus; Lustful Maidens and Ascetic Kings: Buddhist and Hindu Stories of Life, coauthored with Larry D. Shinn, which retells classic Buddhist and Hindu moral stories. He has also served as editor for Canadian Contributions to Buddhist Studies. vii Preface to ”Religion and Politics: New Developments Worldwide” Note on the Cover Picture: I took the cover picture of a Tibetan woman in 2007. She is dressed in the traditional way and is about to spin the prayer wheel to her left. As she walks, she fingers her prayer beads while continually repeating the “Om mani padme hum” mantra. As Tibetans have done for centuries, she is solemnly walking the Barkhor pilgrimage circuit in Lhasa. Pilgrims wind their way through the heart of old Lhasa on a course that passes sacred temples and other holy Buddhist sites. Having been born in autonomous Tibet, she now finds herself under the control of Han Chinese. She cannot read Chinese, but her grandchildren are being educated in Chinese. The signage on shops, even those owned by Tibetans must, by law, be in Chinese. If a shop owner wants to add the shop’s Tibetan name to the sign, it must be below the Chinese characters and must be much smaller. The sign behind her has large Chinese characters, and in much smaller English it reads “Fire Hydrant”. There’s no Tibetan signage for her at all. This picture, for me, shows how political decisions taken at the top level impact the religious and everyday life of individuals, especially religious minorities. This book features articles about recent developments in the interaction of Religion and Politics in various countries of Asia, Africa, Europe, and both North and South America. Most articles deal with one country, but some address an issue that spreads across a larger region. Yashasvini Rajeshwar and I call attention to the controversy surrounding the rise of mass religious conversions in India. The national and several state governments, with their pro-Hindu “Hindutva” policies, put restrictions on mass conversions (usually of Dalits) from Hinduism to Buddhism, Islam, or Christianity. Meanwhile, those same governments encourage mass conversions to Hinduism under the pretense these are not religious conversions but just a matter of “Coming Home” to their Hindu origins. Pashaura Singh reviews the complex history of the way that the Sikhs have interacted with the government from colonial to contemporary times. He argues that the Sikh concept of sovereignty has helped the Sikhs avoid the trappings inherent in the religion-politics divide. S. Romi Mukherjee gives us an insightful and wonderfully reflective update on the continuing reactions, both desirable and undesirable, to the “Je suis Charlie” feelings among the French population. He finds that the population is not nearly as united as we thought at the time. Byung Wook Jun and Sung Man Yoon analyze data from South Korea in an effort to test the perception held by some writers that persons with strong religious identification are less likely to cheat on their taxes and more likely to favor equitable tax policies. Their conclusions challenge those assumptions. Terry Tak-lin Woo offers a passionate defense of the government of China’s firm stance against outside influence and criticism of its policies dealing with China’s religious minorities. She defends China’s stance by calling attention to the government’s fear of separatist movements and terrorists, especially among its Uyghur and Tibetan populations. She challenges what she considers to be the Western media’s focus on only the parts of the government actions that fit its overly narrow perspectives. The essay is controversial in the way it calls into question the widely held views of many observers outside China. Sulistiyono Susilo and Reza Pahlevi Dalimunthe develop a carefully constructed definition of religious radicalization and then analyze how both outside influence and local cultural norms play a role in the radicalization of some Muslims in Southeast Asia. They suggest some specific approaches ix that should help deradicalization in the region. Babajimi Oladipo Fasekes writes about the controversy in Nigeria, with its divided Muslim and Christian populations, concerning whether the government should encourage or shy away from the activities of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. The conclusion is surprising, and perhaps unlikely to be implemented. Rose T. Caraway draws upon data to argue that after the collapse of Soviet support, the Permaculture Movement in Cuba has, in addition to its environmental orientation, taken on a role that includes a spiritual dimension normally associated with religion. Robert W. McGee, Serkan Benk, and Bahadir Yuzbasi draw on data from over 50 countries to address the question of whether there is any difference between Christian and Muslim respondents on the question of whether or not governments