Religion and Conflict Attribution

Religion in a pluralistic society can play a dual role with regard to conflict. It can promote either violence or peace. Religion and Conflict Attribution examines the causes of interreligious conflict as perceived by Christian, Muslim and Hindu college students in Tamil Nadu, India

Religion and Conflict Attribution

Religion in a pluralistic society can play a dual role with regard to conflict. It can promote either violence or peace. Religion and Conflict Attribution examines the causes of interreligious conflict as perceived by Christian, Muslim and Hindu college students in Tamil Nadu, India

A nine country survey of youth in Europe: selected findings and issues

A nine country survey of the life orientations, values and institutional trust of 8948 young people at the upper end of the secondary school age range was set up at the University of Würzburg in the year 2000. Key findings demonstrate that these young people value personal autonomy and are orientated to success in their professional lives and that they especially trust human rights and environmental groups. Religion is associated positively with humanitarianism and in some countries negatively with modernity. These findings provide an indication of the typical life stances of future opinion-formers and illustrate methodological issues thrown up by international research

Advancing civil human rights culture in Tanzania

This contribution investigates the traditional difficulties faced in advancing human rights culture in Tanzania. It describes the sorts of problems, causes and deeper reasons that hinder the advancement and application of human rights in Tanzania. What is the nature of these problems? And what are the possible solutions? Despite the fact that in theory, Tanzania fully embraces human rights, the country falls short when it comes to applying them. We will argue that specific cultural traditions and customs are to blame for human rights abuses. Strict and conservative beliefs and practices in Tanzania do not align with human rights. More specifically, traditional family values and gender-role stereotypes; arranged (child) marriages; belief in witchcraft; and extrajudicial killings and unjust law enforcement are all implicated in causing harm to human rights culture

Advancing civil human rights culture in Tanzania

Item does not contain fulltextThis contribution investigates the traditional difficulties faced in advancing human rights culture in Tanzania. It describes the sorts of problems, causes and deeper reasons that hinder the advancement and application of human rights in Tanzania. What is the nature of these problems? And what are the possible solutions? Despite the fact that in theory, Tanzania fully embraces human rights, the country falls short when it comes to applying them. We will argue that specific cultural traditions and customs are to blame for human rights abuses. Strict and conservative beliefs and practices in Tanzania do not align with human rights. More specifically, traditional family values and gender-role stereotypes; arranged (child) marriages; belief in witchcraft; and extrajudicial killings and unjust law enforcement are all implicated in causing harm to human rights culture.Religion and civil human rights, 10 december 201

Religion and civil rights in Italy: An empirical exploration among secondary school students

What is the role of religion in building up a culture of civil rights in Italy? According to Marzano and Urbinati (2013), the privileged status of the Catholic Church in Italy can result in a negative role of religion towards civil rights issues; according to these sociologists, Habermas’ theory of a public role of religion in a post-secularized society is not applicable in Italy, because of the virtual Catholic religious monopoly. The present study shows the historical background of this debated relation between church and civil rights in Italy. It points out the reasons why both a negative and a positive role of religion toward civil rights can be expected. It presents the results of an empirical investigation among Italian secondary school students (N = 1087), carried out in order to explore the role of religion about civil rights among this portion of public opinion, which will shape the future of this debate in Italy. The questions of this empirical research are: What understanding of civil rights is present among the sample of students? Are there significant differences in support for civil rights in student groups as defined by their religious affiliation and practice? Is there a correlation between the students’ views on civil rights and their religious attitudes? Is there a correlation between the students’ views on civil rights and their background characteristics? What is the predictive strength of the students’ religious attitudes and background characteristics with regard to views on civil rights

Religion for the political rights of immigrants and refugees? An empirical exploration among Italian students

This article focuses on the support, or lack of support, for political rights of immigrants and refugees. Confronted with relatively big groups of migrants and refugees in the Southern part of the country, Italian youth is a highly relevant population to ask the following question: whose rights are human rights? Are political rights the property of all people residing in a country, or can they only be claimed by its citizens? This question is not merely an academic one; it touches the lives of more than ten thousand migrants arriving on the Italian shores every month while risking their lives. This burning issue engages intensely political voices and actors in civil society. One among the latter, the Catholic Church, has become more vocal in the last years in advocating an extension of the rights of immigrants and refugees, sometimes even creating a public clash between bishops’ statements and the voices of those politicians who express populist and xenophobic ideas. This contribution concerns the role of the Catholic Church in Italy’s debate about the political rights of foreigners; not only at the level of public statements and official teachings of the Catholic hierarchy but also at the level of Italian students’ opinions on these matters