European secularism emerged by externalizing religious violence through colonialism

Evidence

At its inception in Europe, secularism as political doctrine guaranteed the peace between warring religious factions by shifting the site of violence from within Europe to outside of it. Secularism’s triumph as political doctrine is closely connected to colonialism and to the rise of a system of capitalist nation-states. Of all the things that secularism can mean, it has not always meant tolerance. Those who do not fit the public personality of the state are simply defined as religious minorities and find themselves in a defensive position. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 369 (#expands, via linked claim)

Secularism is popularly understood in the way that the philosopher Charles Taylor describes its origins. As Talal Asad discusses in his book Formations of the Secular, Taylor argues that the modern state has to make citizenship the primary principle of identity because this is the only way that it can transcend the conflicts that emerge from different identities. But secularism does not simply provide peace and toleration, as Taylor imagines. Secularism secures the power of the state as neutral arbiter. For Taylor, the state resolves the quarrels among different groups through persuasion and negotiation. Asad sees a less benign state that exercises force to guarantee the social arrangements it wants. At its inception in Europe, secularism as political doctrine guaranteed the peace between warring religious factions by shifting the site of violence from within Europe to outside of it. Secularism’s triumph as political doctrine is closely connected to colonialism and to the rise of a system of capitalist nation-states. Of all the things that secularism can mean, it has not always meant tolerance. Those who do not fit the public personality of the state are simply defined as religious minorities and find themselves in a defensive position. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 369 (#expands, via linked claim)

Indeed, one can make an argument that ‘secular’ society as we now see it in Europe is the result of the adaptation of Christianity to the model of secularism that arose as a compromise formation out of the wars of religion following the Reformation. The integration of the Jews into Enlightenment Europe, as Adam Sutcliffe has shown in his Judaism and Enlightenment, was integration into Christian Europe (with Christianity having different textures in England than in Holland than in Bavaria, and so on). — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 878 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Religious-nationalist antagonism originated in Western imperial heartlands, not just its colonies. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 2311; Secularism as a category masks the colonial dimension of settler nationalisms — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 301; The same colonial influence that established secularism also provoked Buddhist communalism — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 135 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Secularism secured European peace by exporting religious violence to colonies. #expands (1.00) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 369
• European secularism secured domestic peace by displacing religious violence onto the colonized world. #expands (1.00) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 369
• European secularism grew from Christianity adapting to post-Reformation religious compromise. #complicates (0.80) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 878