Unveiling the Limits of Tolerance: Comparing the Treatment of Majority and Minority Religious Symbols in the Public Sphere

Abstract:     
The main purpose of this essay will be to focus on certain key questions raised under the prevailing circumstances through a comparative analysis of the handling of the display of religious symbols in public places. These questions include: whether, assuming commitments to pluralism, multiculturalism and religious and non-religious comprehensive views, there may be ways to improve on existing models or to replace them with ones that are better suited to accommodate the new religious and political realities, and whether tolerance can be redeployed to buttress pluralism and to avoid falling into an irreconcilable conflict between religious fundamentalism and antireligious secularism.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 35

Keywords: Hidjab, Islam, pluralism, secularism, veil, cross, crucifix, enlightenment, free exercise

working papers series