Negative freedom of religion

The link between secularization in society, daily life and phenomena of modernisation and modern state is unignorable. Although this connection is not essentially a determination relation, it is clear that the modern law and modern social order is an outcome of the process of secularization and the secularization itself is both connected to the legacy of Enlightenment and in the last instance, it is enabled by the capitalist mode of production. In this context, the freedom of religion and conscience is made possible by modern secular society. While the positive freedom of religion is almost undisputed in modern constitutionalism, the negative freedom of religion is a highly debated issue. In this work, firstly historical background of the negative freedom of religion and main claims of secularization and desecularization thesis were reviewed and then issues about the value of negative freedom of religion and whether secularity can be considered as a right that imposes positive obligations to states are discussed within the scope of legal theory.