The religion-secular boundary is a construct serving Western state power

Evidence

[T]he attempt to say that there is a transhistorical and transcultural concept of religion that is separable from secular phenomena is itself part of a particular configuration of power, that of the modern, liberal nation-state as it developed in the West. … To construe Christianity as a religion, therefore, helps to separate loyalty to God from one’s public loyalty to the nation-state. (Cavanaugh 2009, 59) Cavanaugh directs our attention to the ways in which the construction of the state as secular works to legitimize state violence. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 685

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to reader’s research into sacralized politics — the manufactured religion/secular binary parallels the manufactured external-enemy framing. — connects to: Secular government functions as a continuation of religious authority by other means — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 564; A secular state co-opted and thereby financed its own religious opposition; Church-state separation is historically unique to the West and drove its freedom. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 188 (+5 more)
• DEFINE: Cavanaugh’s core claim that ‘religion’ as a separable category is itself a political construction of the liberal nation-state.

Broader Connections

• Egyptian state secularism regulates religious practice into state-endorsed forms #exemplifies (0.85) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 533
• Secularism’s Western Christian origin does not limit its modern global applicability. #contradicts (0.85) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 19
• Secular government functions as a continuation of religious authority by other means #corroborates (0.80) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 564
• Church-state separation is historically unique to the West and drove its freedom. #corroborates (0.80) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 188
• Western secular bias makes religious conflict elsewhere seem inadmissible #expands (0.80)
• Western states fund religious separatism over redistributive justice claims #exemplifies (0.80) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 391
• A secular state co-opted and thereby financed its own religious opposition #exemplifies (0.75)