ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the secular, secularism, and how this relates to religion and politics. Secularism, according to its advocates, is considered good and beneficial. It emancipates people from tyrannical clerical and ecclesiastical control. Despite the fact that the term "secularism" is often used but rarely defined in the literature, there are exceptions and a number of political definitions of secularism can be found in the literature. There are more aggressive and anti-religious forms of political secularism found in non-democracies, particularly those with communist ideologies. These forms of political secularism view all religion negatively and restrict or perhaps ban all aspects of religion. The chapter argues that a large part of religious politics is the competition between religious and secular elements in society and politics. While religious political actors would like government to be more influenced by religion, support religion, and perhaps enforce religion, political secularists want the opposite.
