Talk:Secularism in the Middle East

Secularism in Muslim countries, or maybe Secularism in the Arab World[edit]

The article does not cover all the countries in the middle east, and leaves Israel out altogether for no good reason. Moreover, the information in the article may also apply to countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia. I suggest changing the name of the article to Secularism in Muslim countries, or maybe Secularism in the Arab World. -- Gabi S. (talk) 14:51, 11 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Israel has been added. -- The Egyptian Liberal (talk)

I'm not sure it is appropriate to include Israel in the article about Secularism in the Middle East, because it is not a Muslim country, as most other countries in the Middle East. Moreover, secularism is relevant to religion, and I think that the best thing would be to merge Secularism in the Middle East with Islam and secularism. The information in both articles overlap, and in any case this issue requires a thorough treatment. -- Gabi S. (talk) 06:38, 12 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I know that Israel is not muslim country but its in the middle east. The middle east has a lot of countries that has a christian minority and some that have a jewish minority (Yemen, Egypt, Bahrain...ETC) who agree or disagree with the idea of Secularism. Therefore the article will have to discuss Religion and Secularism including Judaism (Whether Israel is involved or not). I agree with you that the article requires a thorough treatment to meet wikipedia standard. -- The Egyptian Liberal (talk) 16:38, 13 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The right thing to do it to have only the article Islam and secularism.

If you look closely, there is no article called Secularism in Europe, or Secularism in Africa, because secularism is a concept related to religion, not to geographical boundaries. It makes sense to bind the two only in cases where certain geographical boundaries are strongly identified by religion, such as:

Muslim countries do not overlap with the Middle East (Israel is not Muslim, Malaysia is not in the Middle East, etc.) so it doesn't make sense to have an article about secularism in the Middle East. The article about Islam and secularism is sufficient, and all the information must be there. -- Gabi S. (talk) 13:25, 14 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]