Different laws for different religions?

In colonial Maryland, relations between Catholics and Protestants were so tense that there were laws that defined an insult to either religion as a breach of the peace.

In the Ottoman Empire, people of different religions lived side-by-side in peace for centuries, all governed by their own religious laws and leaders, subject only to paying taxes to their Turkish rulers.

Dmitry Orlov thinks that such arrangements are the key to peace in countries in which Muslims and non-Muslims live together.

The only solution I see is a duopoly, where Moslems and non-Moslems run their respective segments of society according to different sets of rules.

Some rules they must have in common, such as a ban on incendiary, extremist speech. The prohibition against “shouting fire in a crowded theater” applies to such arrangements.

Examples of such arrangements being successful include the Republic of Tatarstan (Russian Federation) where Orthodox Christianity and (majority) Islam coexist peacefully, and mixed marriages can offer a choice of religions to the children they produce.

Another example is the Republic of Chechnya (also Russian Federation) which, having fought a bloody separatist conflict financed by the Saudis and the US, can now successfully combat Islamic terrorism on its own, without involving federal authorities.

Russia is now a dual Christian/Islamic federation; if current demographic trends continue, then at some point it will become an Islamic/Christian federation. So be it. If peace is maintained, nobody will notice or care.

France can embrace the same choice, forming Les Républiques Françaises, and probably will, because what choice does it have—other than losing the war?

via ClubOrlov.

A thoughtful proposal, but I have problems with it—even assuming that dual law works as well in Tatarstan and Chechnya as Orlov thinks it does.

I have no objection to Muslims, Jews, Amish, Mormons or anybody else voluntarily choosing to live by their religious law, and to settle their disputes in religious rather than secular courts.  Nor do I object to consenting adults signing binding contracts to be bound by religious rather than secular law.

But what about the right to change your religion?  In the Ottoman Empire, you were born into a religious community and bound by its law, regardless of your personal beliefs.

This is the oppose of the contemporary USA and most European countries, in which religion is a matter of personal choice, and individuals may well adhere to no religion or to several different religions in the course of a lifetime.  In Tatarstan, as Orlov describes it, religious choice is given only to the children of mixed marriages.

Religion in Tatarstan is governed by two religious councils, one Orthodox Christian and one Sunni Muslim.  There is freedom of religion for any sect that is registered with the government as a legitimate religion, and there are registered places of worship that are neither Muslim nor Orthodox Christian.

Advocates of the radical extremist version of Islam are trying to gain a foothold in Tatarstan, and the government is trying to suppress them.  Tatarstan’s two-religion policy may be the best for that particular nation, I don’t know enough to say, but I don’t think it provides a general solution to the issue of religious peace.

I don’t think that the supposed clash of civilizations has reached the point where Western nations need to compromise on basic human rights and the rule of law applied impartially to everyone.

What Muslims get out of this is the right to peacefully practice their own religion without persecution.  Based on admittedly limited experience in one American city, I think most Muslims accept this.  Let those for whom this is not enough move to majority-Muslim countries.

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On the Charlie Hebdo Carnage by Dmitry Orlov on ClubOrlov.

The Republic of Tatarstan web page on religion.

Tatarstan: The Battle Over Islam in Russia’s Heartland by Ronan Keenan for World Policy Journal.

The Xinjiang / Chechnya correlation by Peter Lee for Asia Times Online.  Both Russia and China are struggling with extremist Islam.

Chinese Salafism and the Saudi Connection by Mohammad Al-Sudiari for The Diplomat.

Tags: bi-national solution, Charlie Hebdo, Chechnya, France, Islam, Ottoman Empire, Religious Tolerance, Republic of Tatarstan, Tatarstan