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Holy sites are often at the center of intense contestation between different groups regarding a wide variety of issues, including ownership, access, usage rights, permissible religious conduct, and many others. They are often the source intractable long-standing conflicts and extreme violence. These difficulties are exemplified by the five sites profiled in Governing the Sacred Devils Tower National Monument (Wyoming, US), Babri Masjid/Ram Janmabhoomi (Uttar-Pradesh, India), the Western Wall (Jerusalem), the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Jerusalem), and the Temple Mount/Haram esh-Sharif (Jerusalem). Telling the fascinating stories of these high-profile contested sites, the authors develop and critically explore five different models of governing such sites: "non-interference," "separation and division," "preference," "status-quo," and "closure." Each model relies on different sets of considerations; central among them are trade-offs between religious liberty and social order. This novel typology aims to assist democratic governments in their attempt to secure public order and mutual toleration among opposed groups in contested sacred sites.
Should contemporary citizens provide material redress to right past wrongs? There is a widespread belief that contemporary citizens should take responsibility for rectifying past wrongs. Nahshon Perez challenges this view, questioning attempts to aggregate dead wrongdoers with living people, and examining ideas of intergenerational collective responsibility with great suspicion. He distinguishes sharply between those who are indeed unjustly enriched by past wrongs, and those who are not. Looking at issues such as the distinction between compensation and restitution, counterfactuals and the non-identity problem, Perez concludes that individuals have the right to a clean slate, and that almost all of the pro-intergenerational redress arguments are unconvincing. Key Features *Unique in claiming past wrongs should not be rectified *Analyses pro-intergenerational material redress arguments *Case studies include court cases from Australia, Northern Cyprus, the United States and Austria, and political and social movements from the US, Palestine and Arab countries
Aharon David Gordon (1856--1922) is increasingly being recognized as the first Jewish environmentalist. Long before global warming became a major threat, Gordon warned against the mounting dangers of human assault on nature and urged us to open ourselves to nature and re-attune with it. The First Jewish Environmentalist introduces Gordon's ideas and sets them in their historical context, shedding new light on the interconnections between religion, culture, education, and the environment. The book expands Gordon's canonical status beyond the realm of Hebrew culture, and extracts from Gordon's philosophy empowerment and inspiration for seekers advocating the protection of our planet.
Within liberal multicultural societies, the right of exit has assumed prominent position in the negotiations between the basic rights of individuals and the rights of cultural or religious groups to govern their internal affairs. The nature, role and scope of application of such a right are, however, dependent on various factors. These include the character of the group from which one wishes to leave, the surrounding society to which one wishes to enter, the role and status of the person who wants to exit, as well as the framework within which the responsibilities of different actors (individuals, groups, state) are negotiated. Whereas the right of exit is one of the central elements of any liberal democracy, several theoretical as well as practical difficulties persist. On Exit addresses some of the most pressing theoretical difficulties and gives normative guidance to the more concrete issues of cultural accommodation. Amongst the contributors to the volume are included political scientists, philosophers, legal scholars and experts on religion, thus providing genuinely interdisciplinary perspectives on the issues on exit.
Argues that states' attachment to the strategy of deterrence can increase the chances of violence rather than avoid it.
Based on a reconstruction of earlier liberal conceptions of liberty (the political theories of John Locke & J.S. Mill), this book stresses the empowering nature of liberal freedom and explains why such a concept of liberty better addresses two key contemporary challenges in liberal theory and praxis: wealth redistribution and multiculturalism.
This book focuses on the Jewish-Palestinian conflict within the state of Israel and the general issue of the role played by modern states in either mitigating majority-minority conflict or exacerbating it. A comparative study, the chapters that concentrate on theoretical models, and comparable historical, legal or political patterns of development.
This multidisciplinary book explores the different forms that national identities can take, as well as their political consequences, drawing not only on philosophy, but also on political science, and psychology.
The Women of the Wall are leading a groundbreaking struggle to gain the Israeli authorities' permission to pray according to their manner at Judaism's holiest prayer site, the Western Wall. This book is the first comprehensive academic study of their struggle, placing it in a comparative and theoretical context of wider religion-state conflicts and models.
An anthology of Jewish diaspora nationalist thought across the ideological spectrum