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2021, The (Il)Legality Of The Prohibition Of Headscarves
AI
The article discusses the growing trend of prohibiting the wearing of religious symbols, particularly the Islamic headscarf, in various European settings, raising questions about the legality and implications of such policies. It highlights the conflicting opinions from European judicial bodies, especially the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice, regarding religious freedom and secularism. The article critiques these prohibitions as forms of indirect discrimination, particularly against Muslim women, and stresses the importance of truly respecting pluralism and diversity in democratic societies.
Münster Lectures in Philosophy, 2020
In multicultural societies the question, whether the state should tolerate religious practices that affect others, is difficult to answer. In Culture, Citizenship and Community Joseph Carens scrutinizes the limits of tolerance towards the practice of circumcision and the wearing of certain symbols-two issues of constant attention in public discussions. In this paper we, firstly, want to show that Carens's conception of tolerance towards the ritual circumcision of boys is based on contestable presuppositions that paint a picture of circumcision as a religious practice comparable to many others. Instead, circumcision should be seen as a form of harm or violence that should not be performed on essentially non-consenting minors. Secondly, we address the issue of wearing religious symbols, using the example of wearing the hijab. Extending Carens's view leads us to a method that could be used to decide whether a state should allow the wearing of certain symbols or prohibit them to suppress certain radical elements within society.
Islamic Law and International Human Rights Law: Searching for Common Ground?, 2012
European Yearbook of Minority Issues Online, 2019
The article "Recognizing Religious Minority Rights: A Key Tool to Managing Pluralism in the European Court of Human Rights" by Eugenia Relaño Pastor examines how the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) engages with the rights of religious minorities within the framework of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Despite the absence of explicit provisions for minority rights in the ECHR, the Court has navigated this gap by leveraging the principles of pluralism and diversity. The analysis reveals a complex interplay between individual and group rights, highlighting both the progress and limitations in the ECtHR's jurisprudence. The author introduces a theoretical framework to categorize religious minority rights, emphasizing the intrinsic and collective dimensions of these rights. The article critiques the ECtHR for inconsistent rulings, particularly when religious expressions conflict with state interests such as secularism or public order. Furthermore, it underscores the challenges of balancing individual autonomy with the collective identity of religious groups. By dissecting key rulings, the article exposes the Court's struggles with protecting "uncomfortable diversities," such as Islamic practices, while upholding democratic values. The article concludes by advocating for a more empathetic and pluralistic approach in adjudicating religious minority rights. It calls for the ECtHR to transcend stereotypes and abstract principles, fostering a legal landscape that values diversity and inclusivity as pillars of a democratic society. This shift, the author argues, is essential for respecting the rights and dignity of all, and for achieving a genuine coexistence of plural identities in Europe.
In this article, I explore what kind of individual is presupposed and promoted as the subject of the right to freedom of religion in Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights. I question the distinction made between freedom of religion and the right to manifest religion in the context of the so-called headscarf cases. I argue that making such a distinction is only possible if it is based on a particular understanding of an individual who, on the one hand, is capable of perceiving religion as something that can be protected as a lifestyle or as a background that can be entered or exited and who is required to submit to certain putatively secular rules, on the other. In order to do this, I outline the application of the distinction by the European Court of Human Rights and discuss whether it is an appropriate tool to approach the religious subjectivities of women wearing the headscarf for religious reasons. I then try to unearth the relationship between the doctrine of secularism and the conception of religion that is embedded in Article 9.
Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, 2021
This article examines the Opinion of AG Rantos in two cases concerning Islamic headscarves before the CJEU and argues that this Opinion appears to give almost carte blanche to (private) employers to adopt neutrality policies in their workplaces based on the wishes of their customers. In doing so, the AG appears to allow employers to pander to the prejudices of their customers and to push believers, and especially Muslim women, even further out of sight. It is argued that this affects not only the employment opportunities, but also the social inclusion of people from groups especially vulnerable to discrimination and that this goes against the founding values of the EU. The CJEU now has a choice: it can choose to protect the fundamental rights of religious minorities by taking these rights into account when assessing the two cases before it, or it can allow employers to pander to the prejudice of customers against people from religious minorities.
2013
Thank you to my supervisor, Professor Danwood M Chirwa, for his comments and patience in reading endless drafts over the last two years. His insights and comments were invaluable and greatly appreciated. Thank you to my family-all of them-for the amazing support in babysitting services, reading (and re-reading) drafts, holding my hand when I needed it and ultimately telling me to just get on with it. I know this would not have been possible had it not it been for all of you.
Religions, 2021
The classical liberal concern for freedom of religion today intersects with concerns of equality and respect for minorities, of what might be loosely termed ‘multiculturalism’. When these minorities were primarily understood in terms of ethno-racial identities, multiculturalism and freedom of religion were seen at that time as quite separate policy and legal fields. As ethno-religious identities have become central to multiculturalism (and to rejections of multiculturalism), specifically in Western Europe in relation to its growing Muslim settlements, not only have the two fields intersected, new approaches to religion and equality have emerged. We consider the relationship between freedom of religion and ethno-religious equality, or alternatively, religion as faith or conscience and religion as group identity. We argue that the normative challenges raised by multicultural equality and integration cannot be met by individualist understandings of religion and freedom, by the idea of state neutrality, nor by laicist understandings of citizenship and equality. Hence, a re-thinking of the place of religion in public life and of religion as a public good and a re-configuring of political secularism in the context of religious diversity is necessary. We explore a number of pro-diversity approaches that suggest what a respectful and inclusive egalitarian governance of religious diversity might look like, and consider what might be usefully learnt from other countries, as Europe struggles with a deeper diversity than it has known for a long time. The moderate secularism that has historically evolved in Western Europe is potentially accommodative of religious diversity, just as it came to be of Christian churches, but it has to be ‘multiculturalised’.
Ankara Avrupa çalışmaları dergisi, 2022
The contribution questions the preliminary rulings given by the CJEU in Achbita and Wabe and Müller Cases that define the corporate neutrality policies banning wearing of religious clothes in private employment as indirect discrimination. The contribution argues that such corporate neutrality policies, though applied to all employees in the same way, constitute in fact direct discrimination for the devout followers of orthopraxis religions, such as Islam, Judaism and Sikhism, provide preference to employer's freedom to conduct a business and economic interests over the employee's right to religious manifestation and social rights, put the right to religious manifestation at the bottom of the hierarchy of grounds of discrimination and cause to economic and social exclusion of such minority employees, notwithstanding the European values.
Journal of Islamic Studies, 2013
Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 2000
Ecumeny and Law, 2021
European states responded in different ways to tensions related to the increase in religious diversity, and the restrictions introduced were considered appropriate when they resulted from public security and the need to protect others, especially if the state presented a credible justification. On this occasion, the case-law of the ECHR developed two key concepts for the determination of the presence of religious symbols in public places: a powerful external symbol and an essentially passive symbol. An important achievement of the Tribunal is also the introduction of the concept of “improper proselytism.” Certainly, a further increase in religious diversity in Europe may lead to new areas of controversy, which will then be assessed by the ECHR. However, the existing instruments used by the Court, such as the idea of the Convention as a living document, the theory of the margin of appreciation or the analysis of the existence of the European consensus, enable it to develop its interp...
Helsinki Monitor, 1998
Katayoun Alidadi & Marie-Claire Foblets (ed.) Public Commissions on ethnic, cultural and religious diversity: National Narratives, Multiple Identities and Minorities, 2018
The chapter critically examines the European Court of Human Rights' (ECtHR) treatment of religious diversity, with a focus on its interpretations of Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. The text argues that the ECtHR's decisions have often prioritized secularism and public order over pluralism and individual religious expression, particularly in cases involving Islam. This approach is seen as undermining the values of diversity and inclusion that are fundamental to a democratic society. This contribution is part of the book that focuses on the experiences of expert commissions in the UK, France, Quebec and Belgium. Furthering the debate on commissions’ potential and limitations it draws on the first-hand experiences and introspection of former commission members and close observers, along with outside perspectives and critique from independent scholars. In several Western countries, expert commissions composed of academics, public figures, politicians and community organisers have been established by governments or civil society to reflect on the changes and challenges of an increasingly plural society. Commission recommendations on how to ‘manage’ diversities successfully have shaped national narratives and affected law and public policies, yet research on the workings of such commissions remains rare. Building on its companion volume (Public Commissions on Cultural and Religious Diversity: Analysis, Reception and Challenges), this book engages with core concepts of identity, nationality, citizenship, freedom, equality and accommodation. It will appeal to researchers and students of public policy, sociology, anthropology, law, religion, politics, history and migration studies, as well as policymakers and anyone with a general interest in current debates on ethnic, cultural and religious diversity.
There is a widespread perception that Muslims are making politically exceptional, culturally unreasonable or theologically alien demands upon European states. My contention is that the logic of Muslim claims-making is European and contemporary.
This paper introduces views both hostile to and supportive of the ideas of secularism and religious neutrality in the jurisprudence of Muslim minorities (fiqh al-aqalliyyat).
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