المسألة الدينية في دساتير دول العالم : الأبعاد التاريخية

Abstract EN

Constitutions usually regulate the relationship between religious references and the state authorities.

They may establish a relationship between the state and a specific religion or religions, that Constitutions recognize a religion or grant its laws or institutions a distinct position in the legal-political system, while other constitutions openly denounce the state's secularism.

However, for many people in the world, the religious identity is an integral part of their societal or national identity, which sometimes requires to be expressed through constitutional recognition.

If we discussed the Islamic heritage, we will find that the Islamic state in the Prophet’s era had a constitution or a constitutional document, and that document could have been a strong beginning for developing Islamic jurisprudence, but that it has not happened over the past 14 centuries.

Today, along the map of the Arab countries, the religious issue has formed one of the main axes in the discussions on the organized philosophy of the new constitutional documents, especially after the Arab Spring, so we find this clear in Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, and to some extent in Jordan, Yemen and Bahrain.

Other countries are still waiting to build new constitutions, as is the case in Algeria, Libya and Syria.

We find that most countries of the world support religion in one way or another, but the motives of states' support for religion are different, including sincere conviction in religion, searching for political legitimacy, or seeking to control religion.

Motivation is often a combination of all of this.

Regardless of these motives, this general support for religion indicates its strength and entrenchment in contemporary societies, contrary to what secularism theory predicts the decline of religion in the contemporary world.

However, constitutional texts need good practices, on the one hand preserving the spirit of constitutions, on the other hand, accumulating a culture that helps in awareness of the necessary distance between religion and politics in the state and its institutions.

Otherwise, the relationship between the two ends, in which politics often prevails at the religion.

For the Islamic civilization to overcome its constitutional crisis, the restrictions must be removed in order for this civilization to resume its path again, and the beginning of its fruitful contribution to the human march after half-heartedness and retreat for a few centuries.

Perhaps the most important thing that aspiring Muslims need to cross into the future is realizing the historical moment in their hands, and clinging to the threads of dawn away from any discouragement.