Faith in Civil Society Religious Actors as Drivers of Change

212 Pages·2014·2.09 MB·English

by  Micael Fröjdlund

Faith in Civil Society
Religious Actors
as Drivers of
Change
Edited by Heidi Moksnes and Mia Melin
Faith in Civil
Society
Religious Actors
as Drivers of
Change
Uppsala Centre for Sustainable Development
Uppsala University
Villavägen 16
752 36 Uppsala Sweden
www.csduppsala.uu.se
Editors Heidi Moksnes and Mia Melin
Graphic design Tegl design
Printed by Hallvigs
Cover photo Dreamstime
Uppsala 2013
ISSN 1403-1264
ISBN 978-91-980391-4-6
Contents
Preface 1
Introduction 3
Eva Christina Nilsson and Heidi Moksnes
Everyday religion and change 9
Petter Jakobsson
Faith and development: Challenges for donors 13
Gerard Clarke
Mixed Blessing: Religion in contemporary politics 31
Gerrie ter Haar
Faith-inspired work for societal change: The Gandhian 45
experience in India
Vino Aram
Religion, civil society and women: Reflections from the 55
Middle East and North Africa
Azza Karam
Inter-religious dialogue: The case of Israelis and Palestinians 71
Jeremy Milgrom
Inter-religious dialogue in Haiti 81
Clement Joseph
Religion as part of energizing the UN 87
Azza Karam
Religious doctrines and the female body 93
Gunilla Hallonsten
Gendering the Arab spring: Religion, citizenship
and democracy
Introduction 105
Liv Tönnesen
Perspectives on gender and citizenship in Syria before 108
the Arab spring
Annika Rabo
Women inspired by religious compassion: An experience 113
from the Egyptian revolution
Shahinaz El Hennawi
Islamisation of democracy or democratisation of political 118
Islam: The future of Morocco after the Arab spring
Fatima Roumate
Religious agency and concern for spiritual and
material change: Liberation theology as a response
Introduction 125
Olle Kristenson
Unfolding the developmental potential of Islam 129
Solava Ibrahim
Capacity infrastructure in Brazil: Legacies of participation 134
in Christian base communities
Raúl Acosta
Religious organisations within civil society 144
Wieke Malda-Douma
Religion and grassroots politics in Africa
Introduction 153
Päivi Hasu
Satan’s snake and political violence in Kenya 158
Gregory Deacon
Muslim community-based organisations in Mozambique: 164
Exclusion or inclusion in development aids projects
Maj-Lis Follér and João Vembane
Reimagining faith-based and civil society organisations 172
as agents of development in transitional polities in Africa
John W Forje
Socially engaged Buddhism
Introduction 181
Monica Lindberg Falk
Being socially engaged in a political world: 185
Soka Gakkai as civil society
Anne Mette Fisker-Nielsen
The recent emergence of socially engaged Buddhism 190
in South Korea
Chae Young Kim
The Sarvodaya Shramadama movement and its 198
’dual awakening’concept
Anja Zalta
Participants List 201

Preface
This volume is based on the conference Faith in Civil Society: Religious
Actors as Drivers of Change, held in Uppsala, Sweden, April 24-25, 2012.
The conference was the third in a series of four yearly conferences, aiming
to explore the formation of civil society internationally and its relation to
democratisation and development. It forms part of the project Outlook on
Civil Society, which is a cooperation between Uppsala Centre for Sustain-
able Development at Uppsala University, the Swedish International
Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and the Dag Hammarskjöld
Foundation.1
Over the past decades, civil society has been considered increasingly
important to socio-economic development and in political mobilisation,
perhaps especially so in developing countries. This is partly an effect of
neo-liberal reforms that have decreased state responsibility in certain
economic as well as political issues, instead increasing the role of not only
private actors but also non-governmental organisations. Furthermore,
the democracy reforms of the last decades and the heightened focus on
human rights have strengthened the political agency of civil movements
and organisations, which often have turned into driving critics of preci-
sely the lack of democracy in governance. In an era of globalisation,
non-governmental organisations, social movements, and other forms of
civil organisations have extended their contacts across national borders,
in a process promoting the creation of transnational civil networks.
Many are the hopes that this vitalisation of civil society will strengthen
societal devel opment in a democratic direction, with increased popular
participation.
Outlook on Civil Society aims at advancing the Swedish research front
on civil society in developing countries, and at strengthening research-
based knowledge about civil society among Swedish actors within inter-
national development cooperation. Furthermore, the project strives to
be a bridge-builder between these two different spheres of expertise, and
provide real possibilities for mutual exchange.
1
Preface
This third conference in our series focused on civil society actors
constituted by religious associations and communities. Religious faith is
a force by which people mobilise around shared identities with spiritual as
well as political objectives, sometimes creating vast networks that extend
beyond nation-state borders. The last decades, states have taken on an
increased interest in religious associations, whether as a means to enforce
shared values and objectives, to shoulder the task as service providers, or
to counter terrorism. This interest is reflected as well in renewed attention
within international development cooperation for religious associations.
While this has given augmented recognition to the role of religious actors,
it has also brought to fore differences in perspectives and values, and raised
issues on how to respect – or strive to overcome – these.
The two-day conference housed about one hundred and ten parti-
cipants from all continents – researchers, development practitioners,
policy makers, activists, and students – who in presentations and discus-
sions gave rich and comparative perspectives on the complexities of the
conference theme.
The articles in this volume are edited versions of keynote presentations
at the conference, of introductory presentations held in discussion sessions,
as well as short versions of the papers presented in the paper-based sessions,
each of which is introduced by the session chair.
We are very happy to be able to offer to our readers this rich collection
of case studies and analyses from across the world of how faith-based orga-
nisations and communities manifest themselves as important social actors,
and how they deal with sometimes conflicting values and notions of social
change, within their own communities and in relation to other actors.
Uppsala, March 2013
Mia Melin and Heidi Moksnes, editors and project co-ordinators
Note
1. The project is based at Uppsala Centre for Sustainable Development at Uppsala
University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. It is funded by Sida
between 2009 and 2013. The formal project name is Civil Society in International
Development: Research and Practice
2
Introduction
Eva Christina Nilsson and Heidi Moksnes
It is time to take religion seriously. Not because it is more important than
anything else, but because religion is part of what influences people, their
values, their worldview, and their behaviour. It is a factor as strong as
economy and politics. Religion is a tool to relate to a wider reality than
yourself, and for many it brings meaning, offers hope, and is a source of
inspiration to change. In difficult situations people tend to turn to their
religious leaders. If we want to make a difference through political work
or development cooperation, we have to understand the contexts in which
faith and religion are significant for people.
Religion is important not only at a personal level; societies and politics
are influenced as well. Across the world, religious faith motivates people
to mobilise around shared spiritual as well as political objectives, forming
groups that sometimes are important social actors, whether within civil
society or as political parties, directly engaging with state governance.
Thus, by understanding the role of religion we can better understand
political processes and societal developments.
Somebody said that “there is good religion, bad religion and very bad
religion.” Taking religion seriously is not to say that there is only “good”
religion. There are innumerable examples of how religion has been used
to discriminate women, keep people obedient, promote and fuel conflicts,
and to keep HIV/aids out of the agenda. The list goes on. However,
this is not a reason to leave religion out of analyses, rather the opposite.
Whether religion has consequences regarded as ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ it has to
be understood – and the need to understand might be even bigger in
situations where religion encourages or is used as a tool for discrimination.
Thus, the many positive and good forces of religion are dimensions to
build upon when striving for social development, while at the same time
isolating negative and oppressive forces.
3