Secularism is a legal-moral arrangement, not the liberating opposite of religious tyranny

Evidence

A secular state is not one characterized by religious indifference, or rational ethics—or political toleration. It is a complex arrangement of legal reasoning, moral practice, and political authority. This arrangement is not the simple outcome of the struggle of secular reason against the despotism of religious authority. We do not understand the arrangements I have tried to describe if we begin with the common assumption that the essence of secularism is the protection of civil freedoms from the tyranny of religious discourse, that religious discourse seeks always to end discussion and secularism to create the conditions for its flourishing. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 1230

Categorization

• XREF: Corroborates the Cooper thesis that ‘secular’ liberalism is itself a normative arrangement privileging Christian-derived assumptions rather than a neutral retreat from religion.
• DEEPTHINKING: Compact statement of Asad’s core contrarian move: secularism redefines itself from neutral liberation to a specific arrangement of power that smuggles its own norms.