PDF At the Heart of Terror: Islam; Jihadists; and America's War on Terrorism by Monte Palmer; Princess Palmer in History

Description

Now in a thoroughly revised and updated edition; this essential text offers a rigorous; systematic comparison of church-state relations in the United States; Australia; the Netherlands; Germany; and England. As successful and stable political democracies; these five countries share a commitment to protecting the religious rights of their citizens. Yet as the book demonstrates; each has taken substantially different approaches to resolving basic church-state questions. Stephen V. Monsma and J. Christopher Soper examine the historical roots of those differences and explain how each state addresses contemporary church-state issues. The authors judge each government's success in protecting the religious rights of its citizens using a framework based on the ideal of governmental neutrality or evenhandedness toward people of all faiths and of none. Providing clarity on the little-understood; evolving relationship between church and state in the West; this book provides an invaluable comparative analysis of a topic that is increasingly a source of profound political and social conflict. Monsma and Soper conclude that the American conception of church-state separation; with its traditional emphasis on avoiding government establishment of religion; actually discriminates against religious groups by denying access to government services provided to other organizations. The authors persuasively argue that the United States can learn a great deal from other Western nations in promoting religious neutrality and the free exercise of religion.