This project explores the interaction between constitutional law, politics, and religion in the context of the protection of religious freedom. More specifically, it examines the constitutional underpinnings of religion and religious freedom, assesses their implications for the protection of religious liberties and interethnic relations, and explains the conditions that might facilitate or undermine the effectiveness of such constitutional protections. It focuses on three Asian societies where ethnic and/or religious fault lines are highly salient socially and politically: Indonesia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka.

Scholarship on religion-state relations, religious freedom, and fundamental rights, more generally, is extensive. Scholars have written on the philosophical underpinnings and justifications for religious freedom, developed models of religion-state relations and studied their impact on religious freedom, and demonstrated the importance of bills of rights in national constitutions. Yet, there is still a dearth of scholarship that conceptualizes the right to religious freedom, particularly from the perspective of plural societies where religion is highly salient. In such societies, not only are religious beliefs deeply held; they are powerful forces for social and political mobilization on the ground and they can evolve into a source of oppression and conflict.

This project fills this gap by illuminating an understanding of these issues in a manner sensitive to the contextual intricacies of such societies. Aside from addressing the of tasked question of how practice reflects the constitutional provisions on religion and religious freedom, it also asks how and why those provisions were adopted by highlighting, in particular, the political compromises that drove the adoption of the provisions. The analytical significance of the project also rests in its articulation of how the state of religious freedom in the three countries is shaped by the willingness and ability of judicial institutions to uphold rights guarantees, as well as the existence of electoral incentives to protect the rights and interests of all groups across the board. Through a comprehensive examination of the experiences in these countries, this project advances an understanding of the effectiveness and evolution of constitutions and their underlying principles, particularly in contentious cases implicating religion.

Overall, this project provides meaningful content to the question of why the protection of religious freedom is valuable in plural societies like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka. By extension, as a practical matter, the analysis presents useful lessons for efforts to strengthen the protection of religious freedom and interethnic relations in the countries under study, as well as in others that exhibit similar characteristics and face similar issues. The study of the three countries therefore presents much food for thought, and the problems and trajectories that are carefully evaluated in the project will be instructive for other countries grappling with similar challenges in managing religious pluralism.