Deusto Journal of Human Rights

Governance of religious diversity: current challenges and approaches to democratic coexistence. Introduction to the monograph

Nahikari Irastorza, Davinia Gómez-Sánchez, Julia Martínez-Ariño — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200

This article reflects on the public governance of cultural and religious diversity. Religious traditions have long shaped dominant cultural patterns in Western societies, which now face the challenge of ensuring harmonious coexistence among groups with diverse beliefs and ways of expressing them. In democratic systems where majorities tend to prevail, it is essential to develop approaches that enable the meaningful inclusion of minority perspectives. Although policymaking in this area is primarily a national or regional level competence, local public institutions —due to their proximity to citizens— are often the first to address demands for religious accommodation, despite frequently lacking the capacity to respond effectively to an increasing religious diversity, and the different customs and practices related to it. This special issue brings together interdisciplinary contributions from the social sciences that pay particular attention to local and regional experiences in the governance of religious diversity and policy innovations across different national contexts and policy fields.

Beyond the idea of polarization: superdiversity as an alternative perspective for Dutch cities

Peter Scholten — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200

Superdiversity is challenging conventional policy discourses and policy categories. Whereas legal categories and policies assume clearly demarcated groups, superdiversity helps understand the complex intersectionalities that make up today’s cities. When simplistic categories and discourses meet social complexity, this can feed sentiments of crisis and polarization. This article aims to develop superdiversity as a perspective that helps understand rather than deny social complexity. It positions The Netherlands as a revelatory case study on how superdiversity is challenging conventional policy discourses and policy categories. The article shows that discourses on crisis and polarization in Dutch societies can be better understood as misinterpretations of social complexity than as actual tensions between clearly demarcated groups. A superdiverse society involves a high degree of fragmentation, as a result of the broader processes of globalization, individualization and technologization. Migration and diversity have come to symbolize discomfort with these processes.

Received: 13 May 2025; Accepted: 15 May 2026

Stratified inclusion: from technocratic management to networked governance in Spain’s religious diversity regime

Zakaria Sajir — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200

Spain’s regime of religious diversity is marked by a gap between formal commitments to pluralism and systemic exclusions produced through legal, normative, and spatial asymmetries. This article argues that technocratic “diversity management” depoliticizes diversity, marginalizes minority agency, and sustains “selective secularism”, whereby majority Catholicism is culturalized while minority expressions, especially those read as Muslim or associated with Muslim communities, are religionized. Linking paradigm conflict, normative hierarchies, and territorial fragmentation, the article conceptualizes this configuration as stratified inclusion: minorities are symbolically recognized yet largely excluded from shaping the norms that govern them. Drawing on case law, Spain’s legal architecture, and local governance practices, it identifies administrative discretion, culturalization, religionization, and spatial inequality as governance pathologies that undermine freedom of religion or belief, equality before the law, and related human rights. It advances “networked governance” as a multiscalar, co-productive corrective capable of embedding minority agency in institutional design and democratic pluralism.

Received: 20 May 2025; Accepted: 07 January 2026

Bridging religious difference in an Autonomous Region: cultural mediators and the promise of transcultural capital

Alexandra Cosima Budabin — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200

This research contributes to the discussion of how diversity governance is dealing with demands to accommodate the increasing religious diversity born of recent migration flows. As part of the toolkit for managing religious diversity at the regional level, cultural mediators are seen as contributing to the sincere and real inclusion of religious minority perspectives, reducing tensions and assisting new religious minorities to overcome barriers. Using the case of South Tyrol in Italy, I explore how national and regional diversity governance have developed policies to establish the figure of cultural mediator as part of supporting meaningful participation in pluralist societies. I argue that this role is further enhanced in diversity governance with policies that promote members of new religious minorities as cultural mediators, valorizing their transcultural capital. This case shows how regions with political autonomy can adapt and expand national policies to address religious diversities.

Received: 05 May 2025; Accepted: 20 March 2026

The ethics of enforcement: human rights-based policing in duty-oriented societies

Nafiz Absar Mahmood — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200

This article examines the tension between rights-based policing and duty-based morality. Liberal democracies, concerned for individual autonomy, procedural safeguards, and encroachment by the state, continue to create tensions with morality rooted in relational duty and collective ethics. In particular, non-Western societies often conceptualize justice in terms of social harmony and duty, representing justice shaped by a cultural context. Through multidisciplinary theory and comparative cases, this article shows how the imposition of rights-based frameworks results in cultural resistance. The paper discusses informal justice systems. Therefore, on the one hand, it explores the promise and peril of hybrid justice models. Accordingly, on the other hand, it proposes a more sophisticated or nuanced conceptualization that respects cultural contexts, without undermining the universality of core human rights protections.

Received: 12 November 2025; Accepted: 03 April 2026

Yoruba indigenous religion (Ìṣẹ̀ṣe) and the right to freedom of religion: Intersecting human rights and epistemicide perspectives

Oluwaseun Olanrewaju — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200

Ìṣẹ̀ṣe is the indigenous religion and spiritual heritage of the Yoruba people in South-West Nigeria. While existing literature has examined the marginalization of indigenous faiths through a human rights lens, this paper argues that such a framework cannot fully address the systemic roots of this discrimination. This is because human rights discourse typically focuses on religious freedom, failing to account for Ìṣẹ̀ṣe’s broader identity as a comprehensive indigenous knowledge system. This paper contends that in post-independence Nigeria, Ìṣẹ̀ṣe has primarily suffered from epistemicide -the systematic silencing and delegitimization of indigenous ways of knowing. By reframing the challenges confronting Ìṣẹ̀ṣe practitioners as a matter of epistemic justice, this paper moves beyond simple legal protections. It emphasizes that public policies should be anchored in an analytical framework that recognizes Ìṣẹ̀ṣe as a significant component of Yoruba epistemology. Such an approach provides the essential legitimacy to indigenous practices, serving as a catalyst for federal and state governments to move beyond rhetoric while providing substantive protection for the religious and epistemic rights of Ìṣẹ̀ṣe practitioners.

Received: 30 November 2025; Accepted: 16 April 2026

Atheism as a condition of procedural legitimacy in democratic community

Benjamin Gregg — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200

Nonreligious persons —atheists, agnostics, and the unaffiliated— remain systematically marginalized within liberal democracies that profess commitment to pluralism. I show that such exclusion is not accidental but structurally embedded in pluralisms still defined by theological premises. Through a fact-sensitive, non-ideal methodology integrating political theory with social-scientific research, I document the legal asymmetries, social stigma, and symbolic erasure confronting nonbelievers, and argue that liberal neutrality is insufficient to secure genuine inclusion. In response, I develop a model of procedural pluralism treating atheism as the limiting case for democratic legitimacy. Drawing on the Rawlsian tradition of political liberalism, I show that atheism has functioned historically as a structural condition of modern secular institutions and contrast the community-indexed justificatory logic of revealed religion with the procedurally universal logic of democratic public reason. Only the latter can ground legitimate authority under conditions of deep moral and metaphysical disagreement. Recognizing atheism as a comprehensive doctrine capable of grounding ethical life and participating in public reason is therefore a requirement of equal civic standing, and democratic authority must be post-metaphysical: legitimacy should arise from procedures of justification accessible to citizens regardless of their theological commitments.

Received: 15 October 2025; Accepted: 06 April 2026

Laicity as a political project of citizenship from the State in Latin America: its instrumentalization in three countries (Mexico, El Salvador, Bolivia)

Felipe Gaytán Alcalá, Karina Bárcenas Barajas — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200

This article examines the state’s instrumentalization concerning the political projects of citizenship within the framework of laicity in Latin America, analyzing its evolution across two main stages. The first stage focuses on establishing the legitimacy of the state in opposition to the influence of the Catholic Church and other denominations, grounded in state sovereignty and the separation of political and religious spheres. The second stage emerges amid increasing social, cultural, and religious diversity, requiring the state to recognize difference and ensure equality in the exercise of rights, transitioning toward a form of laicity that promotes human rights. The analysis emphasizes the tensions and challenges arising from these processes in three national contexts —Mexico, Bolivia, and El Salvador— selected for their divergent approaches to political objectives and citizenship definitions. The central objective is to understand how Latin American states have instrumentalized these projects concerning laicity, employing a methodology that considers three dimensions: the normative framework, the role of religious groups, and the political instrumentalization of religion. The central question guiding this approach is: How have Latin American states utilized the concept of laicity in shaping rights and citizenship within contexts of social and religious diversity? This inquiry aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the tensions and transformations in the relationships among the state, religion, and citizenship within the region.

Received: 01 December 2025; Accepted: 13 May 2026

Migration, religious identity and human rights: the case of Bangladeshi Muslims in India

Khushbu Kumar, María Belén Blázquez Vilaplana, Belén Agrela-Romero — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200

This article explores and examines the representation in the discourses of political parties in India about Bangladeshi Muslim migrants in the country, delving in particular into the recent Hindu nationalistic rhetoric. In order to do so, it analyses the discriminatory rhetorical questions as well as exclusionary socio-political practices and examine them through a critical discourse lens. It begins by contextualizing major political and historic events in South Asia that enable us to understand and situate the present-day debates regarding Bangladeshi Muslim immigration in India. Next, it analyses the Citizenship Amendment Act (2019) to investigate the impact on religion as a stratifying element of the rights of Muslim migrants. Finally, it briefly highlights and exemplifies religious diversity and inclusion in political processes in order to design public policies that do not violate the secular principles of the Constitution.

Received: 24 November 2025; Accepted: 23 February 2026

Public expressions of religiosity in urban space: governance, heritage, and religious diversity. The case of public iftars

Mar Griera, Víctor Albert-Blanco — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200

This article analyzes public expressions of religiosity as a lens through which to understand the urban transformations of religious diversity. In contexts characterized by the coexistence of secularization and religious pluralization, practices such as processions, collective meditations, and religious festivities are becoming increasingly visible in streets and urban squares. The article conceptualizes these expressions as hybrid urban devices situated at the intersection of different regimes —heritage, regulatory, relational, and devotional— that shape the conditions of visibility and legitimacy of religions in public space. Drawing on an analytical framework structured around four dimensions —spatial inscription, governance, social representations, and cultural resources (e.g., gastronomy or music)— the article examines how these events produce specific forms of sociability and religious hierarchization. Focusing on public iftars as the main empirical example, the article highlights both their potential to foster interaction and interreligious dialogue and the persistent inequalities that structure access to urban space.

Received: 27 March 2026; Accepted: 13 May 2026

The legal treatment of religious diversity in education: the jurisprudence of the ECHR and its projection in Spanish law

Yolanda Alonso Herranz — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200

This study takes an integrated approach to the normative and interpretative foundations that shape the relationship between the right to education and freedom of conscience. To this end, it examines the international, European, and Spanish frameworks on religious freedom and education, as well as the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, whose doctrine requires that public education be developed from a position of neutrality, critical thinking, and pluralism, excluding any form of state indoctrination. Religious education is understood as a cultural phenomenon and as a space for learning about pluralism, capable of integrating the various traditions present in Spanish society without renouncing state neutrality or the respect owed to the convictions of parents and students. On this basis, the study analyzes the Spanish model for managing religious diversity and its conformity with the standards of equality, non-discrimination, and pluralism required by international and European law.

Received: 29 November 2025; Accepted: 31 March 2026

Modood, Tariq y Thomas Sealy. 2024. The new governance of religious diversity. Cambridge: Polity Press. 180 p.

Cristina de la Cruz-Ayuso — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200

This review examines The new governance of religious diversity (2024), in which Tariq Modood and Thomas Sealy propose a reconfiguration of the relationship between the State and religion. The authors challenge the “secularization thesis” and the “blindness to difference” inherent in political liberalism, arguing that religion remains a decisive factor in the public sphere. Their central proposal is the transition toward a “multiculturalized” or “moderate” secularism, which preserves state autonomy while recognizing religious identities as public goods and sources of ethical capital. Through a strategy of “leveling up”, they suggest extending the privileges of historical religions to minorities to foster social cohesion. Utilizing a global contextualist approach, the work decolonizes secularism by validating governance models adapted to macro-regional realities. However, the review identifies critical limitations: the proposal relies on a dialogic “good fait” that is scarce in climates of affective polarization and risks being instrumentalized by majoritarian nationalisms. Furthermore, it questions whether the loss of strict legal separation leaves minorities vulnerable to the tyranny of the majority. Despite challenges regarding its normative applicability, the book stands out for its sociological realism and its ability to provide practical tools for managing religious diversity.

Medda-Windischer, Roberta; Kerstin Wonisch, and Alexandra C. Budabin, eds. 2024. Religious minorities in pluralistic societies. Critical perspectives on the accommodation of religious diversities. Leiden: Brill. 240 p.

José Ramón Intxaurbe — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0200

This text presents a review of the edited volume Religious minorities in pluralistic societies. Critical perspectives on the accommodation of religious diversities, edited by Roberta Medda-Windischer, Kerstin Wonisch and Alexandra Cosima Budabin. The volume addresses one of the major challenges facing contemporary pluralistic societies: the management of the claims of minority religious groups in contexts characterised by increasing cultural and religious diversity. Adopting an empirical approach, the book is structured around a series of case studies located in Europe and the Middle East, through which specific policies and measures of religious accommodation are analysed from the perspectives of equality, religious freedom and social cohesion. The review examines the main contributions of the volume, paying particular attention to issues such as legal pluralism, the interaction between religious and civil jurisdictions, the risks of discrimination associated with certain models of recognition, and the impact of recent migratory flows on existing regulatory frameworks. The cases of Greece, the United Kingdom, Israel, Italy and Russia serve to illustrate the persistent tension between the recognition of religious diversity and the protection of individual rights in democratic regimes. The analysis highlights that the reconciliation of religious accommodation and equality does not lend itself to simple or unilateral solutions, underscoring the need for dialogical, flexible and contextually sensitive approaches aimed at fostering social cohesion in increasingly diverse societies.