The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University recently hosted a panel discussion on how religious liberty figures into the Arab Spring, featuring an array of experts, including a representative from the Pew Forum, a former Bush Administration counsel, and various professors.
The discussion, introduced by Tom Farr (author of several pieces in this magazine), centers around the thesis that repressive regimes paradoxically increase religious bloodshed in the long term, while more democratic societies (particularly ones which permit the expression of religious sentiment in public life) ultimately have fewer incidents of violence and radicalization. It’s a polarizing claim, and it engendered some lively dissension, particularly on the part of Mohammed Hafez, a scholar at the Naval Academy, who attacks that thesis as overly optimistic, wielding example upon example.
