Abstract

BLANCARTE PIMENTEL, Roberto. The Secular State and the West. Rev. mex. cienc. polít. soc [online]. 2016, vol.61, n.226, pp.141-157. ISSN 0185-1918.  https://doi.org/10.1016/S0185-1918(16)30006-X.

What do detractors of the West mean by that? How do we concieve it? Which are its main values and institutions? How do we understand the expansion of Western values and institutions and their relationship to other cultures? Are secularization and laicism of political institutions a central and specific element of our culture? Are they an integral component of what some groups consider the Western aggression towards their societies? Are the secularization of society and the laicization of political institutions, of the State or the public sphere compatible with other cultures? Beyond implications regarding violence or, on occasion, military strategy, it is evident that answers to these queries carry multiple consequences over social stability, safety, migrations, freedoms, life-views and, above all, the forms of social coexistence. Thus, we must make a halt to learn who we are vis-à-vis ourselves and others. This article poses a possible response to these questions.

Keywords : secularization; secularism; Occident; Islam; democracy; cultural pluralism; terrorism.

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