Psychiatry has increasingly devoted its attention to the role of religion and spirituality in mental health and illness. All religions offer explanations for meaning and purpose of life, involving rationales for the reality of human suffering and traumas related to natural disasters, war, civil violence, torture, etc. In many countries different religious organizations have funded and operated ...

Across the social sciences, research has accumulated focusing on what has been termed a "global civil society" (Cox 1999; Wapner 1996) and a corresponding "global" or "world culture." (Boli and Thomas 1999; Featherstone 1990). Although scholars of global culture vary in terms of the questions they pose and the arguments they advance, there is one point upon which they tacitly seem to agree: glo...

Freedom of religion and conscience is regarded among one of the human rights in international documents signed or declared after the World War II. In this paper I investigate from a legal perspective whether the freedom of religion and conscience and religious minority rights that Alevis enjoy in Turkey are in line with the standards in relevant international documents. Therefore I firstly exam...