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Majorities and Minarets: Religious Freedom and Public Space

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2014

David Miller
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Abstract

The problem raised when democratic majorities take decisions that impose restrictions on religious minorities may be avoided through ‘the strategy of privatization’, but not when the issue is the character of public space. This article considers a challenging case: the Swiss referendum decision to ban any future construction of Islamic minarets. It examines two grounds for opposition: the human right to freedom of religion, and the liberal principle of equal treatment of cultures. It argues that the human right is too limited, and that the equal treatment principle can be trumped by considerations of national identity when public space is involved. Nevertheless, the content of that identity and its public expression must remain open to democratic deliberation, and the Swiss decision can be faulted on those grounds.

Type
Articles
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , April 2016 , pp. 437 - 456
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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Footnotes

*

Nuffield College, University of Oxford (email: [email protected]). The author thanks Alexander Kuehl and Mira Wolf-Bauwens for research which contributed to the writing of this article. Earlier versions were presented as lectures at the following universities: McGill, Queen's (Ontario), Toronto, Pavia, Helsinki and Oxford, and he is grateful to all these audiences for their questions and comments on these occasions. He is also especially thankful to the following for individual discussions and written comments: Joseph Carens, Emanuela Ceva, Marcus Haggrot, Sam Kiss, Cécile Laborde, Catherine Lu, Tariq Modood, Margaret Moore, Alan Patten, Lea Ypi, and three anonymous referees for this journal.

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