What is meant
The authority does not have the right to coerce people into religious rituals but it can regulate places of worship and prevent their use for political exploitation
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: legislative
- Argument movement: negation of the right to coercion in rituals, while permitting administrative regulation.
- Key terms: authority, coercion, rituals, places of worship, political exploitation.
- Degree of centrality: central.
It defines the limit of authority vis-à-vis religion: no coercion in worship, but regulation is legitimate when preventing exploitation, thereby drawing clear boundaries between religious freedom and public order.
Reading aids
- Muhammad Shahrur Religion and Authority
- The Civil State, Religion, and Authority
- Jurisprudence is historical and civil law is separate from it
Basis
- Supporting text: «The authority does not have the right to coerce in rituals, but it may regulate places of worship and prevent their political exploitation».
Degree of documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary, and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted word for word.
Its function in the book
Its function here is declarative; it establishes a result on which what follows in the progression of the argument depends.
Related to
Editorial note
This atom is very important in the conception of the relationship between religion and authority.