The term “secular” has been completely redefined by the New Left Western atheists. Secularism was invented in the 1600s as a guarantee that all faiths would be respected.
Secularism was never defined as atheism or godlessness, but rather the very opposite. To be secular meant to respect religious freedoms for all.
Today secularism is often understood as a political strategy that seeks to outroot religion as a whole in accordance to Marxist ideology. To be “secular” now implies to be against religion, while in its original meaning, it was an effort to bring respect for religious differences, writes historian of comparative religions and founder of The Herland Report, Hanne Nabintu Herland.
The Norwegian doctor and author, Mohammad Usman Rana has pointed this out in the Herland Report TV interview on YouTube about Secular Extremism in Europe. His treatise on Secular Extremism hits a chord, as secularism and “neutrality” is redefined to mean atheism and godlessness as the accepted approach in the New Left context.
Secular Extremism in Europe: In the 1600s, secularism adopted the conviction that political conditions should be discussed outside of the religious sphere, from a so-called “neutral” perspective. It was in this period that the Christian English philosopher John Locke defined liberalism and theories of human rights.
The original concept of liberalism guarantees freedom of choice and is one of the main freedoms upon which democratic systems rest. Locke formulated the reasons for why religious tolerance is essential, stating that enforcing uniformity would lead to more social disorder than allowing religious diversity.
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Secular Extremism in Europe: Historically, the secular attempt was to ignite a system that would bring respect for religious differences. The idea was that different religious or non-religious groups were to tolerate each other, allowing differences to coexist.
However, the point was not to use “secularism” to persecute believers and ridicule religious faith but to end persecution by implementing secularism as the protector against persecution.
If you say that you are secular today, many assume that you are an atheist. Or a non-believer in God and his creation of the world. Yet, in its historical definition, to be secular meant something dramatically different.
The wars in the sixteenth-century Europe were an important reason for the development of the secular state. At that time, this meant that the state does not discriminate persons based on their religious or non-religious beliefs, or favor individuals based on the same discrimination.
This meant the separation of the state from its religious institutions in order to open up society for religious freedom.
People should have the right to believe in God or to refrain from doing so, without being persecuted for their faith. This was a time in history when most were Christians so that the political differences translated into religious conflicts. The Catholic church fought Protestants, and both fought a wide variety of denominations, of whom many fled to the new world, America.
The idea developed that a solution to the political strife could be to separate state and church. Europe was suffering under political and religious leaders whose geopolitical agendas, again and again, led to war on the continent.
It was in this stage that the Peace of Westphalia was implemented in 1648, which laid out treaties for respect of national sovereignty and each country’s right to determine which cultural, religious, and national values it would pursue.
This did not end all wars, but still created a foundation for the modern concept of respect for national sovereignty and international law that forms the theoretical basis of, for example, the United Nations.
Secular Extremism in Europe: One of the driving forces behind secularism and allowing religion to be a matter which would not interfere with the state was that Europe would become a sphere without discrimination against religious groups. The principle of religious freedom was established as a secular principle.
With the original concept of secularism, religious freedom for all was implemented. The secularism practiced respected religious freedom and, in fact, ensured it. The point being that a secular state would protect different religious group’s right to coexist without one dominating the other.
Typically, many African countries today are secular states, as they are broadly multi-faith nations. It is of vast importance that all faiths feel respected and welcome in such countries, whether Christian, Muslim, animist, or other.
Men and women from all faiths may become ministers and hold office, and the individual’s religion is not to determine which public roles he is allowed to have, for example. It is precisely the nature of the secular state that guarantees the respect for religious diversity and its freedoms.
