Abstract
Western discourses about religion typically assume a concept of it as primarily a system of belief, grounded on faith in the authority of certain texts designated as scripture. But many conflicts around the world ostensibly organized around religious identities have little to do with belief. While scholars sometimes describe such cases in terms of politicization of religion, the underlying phenomenon is a conversion of the content of religion (beliefs, symbols, narratives, rituals) into markers of group identity. Philosophies of religious pluralism, such as that of the late John Hick, ignore this in arguing for the (qualified) relativity of religious belief and doctrine. Whether or not their arguments are convincing, analyses of this sort have little relevance to cases of religious communalism, where elements of “religion” serve predominantly as expressions or signs of inherited group identity. In these cases, the operative claims of religion within social life cannot be effectively regulated by the philosophies of religious pluralism focused on the content of faith. It is important to recognize this if the moral and political aim is to discover strategies for countering inter-group violence.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
This is also true of Eisenberg’s analysis in Reasons of Identity; see Chapter 5, “Religious Identity and the Problem of Authenticity” (Eisenberg 2009, 91–118).
- 2.
This last observation does not quite fit Canadian multiculturalism, whose formulation has been at least equally oriented towards national minorities, to use Will Kymlicka’s term, which in Canada mainly comprises francophone Quebecers and indigenous communities (though these groups have not necessarily welcomed inclusion within the multicultural paradigm, which, some argue, tends to dilute rather than respect stronger claims for the right of social and political self-determination (Abu-Laban and Stasiulis 1992; Nootens 2014; Coulthard 2014). With respect to immigrant minorities, however, most of the cases that have reached the courts or been prominent in public discussions about “reasonable accommodation” have indeed been religious ones. These include demands for institutional accommodation of prayer times and spaces, and for the dietary requirements of different religious groups, along with the especially acute focus on the wearing and display of religious garments, such as turbans, headscarves and veils.
- 3.
Cf. Anna Galeotti: “With regard to ‘our’ practices, no matter how objectionable from the point of view of substantive autonomy, rarely, if ever, does one hear calls for public bans of the practice. In contrast, cries for a public ban were central to the protracted public controversy over the Islamic headscarf in France, leading to draconian regulations and to the prohibition on wearing it in school” (Galeotti 2015, 60). Phillips likewise draws attention to the “hierarchical differentiation between the agentic individuals from majority or Western ethnocultural groups and those ‘others’ deemed more passive and constrained” (Phillips 2015, 94).
- 4.
“Religion is not a race”, says one Quebec politician, in answer to the charge that the Canadian province’s ban on veils is racist.
- 5.
The racist anti-Sikh posters discovered on the University of Alberta campus in Canada in September of 2016 provide an especially odious example of such attitudes. See Alam (2016).
- 6.
It is also sometimes claimed that some forms of veiling, such as the burqa, are uncomfortable and may be harmful to women’s health. As Martha Nussbaum points out, however, the same could be said of many common Western items of women’s attire, such as high-heeled shoes, which no one is arguing for banning (Nussbaum 2012, 115). See also note 4 on the double standard used for judgements of autonomy in such cases. It is telling that recent feminist analyses emphasize respecting women’s agency in relation to cases of “choice” that earlier feminists had problematized, such as sex work and pornography, and yet choices such as wearing the hijab readily evoke suspicions of false consciousness (Al-Saji 2010, 881).
- 7.
This is not to ignore the many difficulties multicultural models have to confront in balancing individual and group rights, dealing with intra-group oppressions of gender and class, minorities within minorities, concerns about representation and so on, which it is not my purpose to discuss here.
- 8.
References
Abu-Laban, Y., & Stasiulis, D. (1992). Ethnic pluralism under siege: Popular and partisan opposition to multiculturalism. Canadian Public Policy, 4, 365–386.
Al-Saji, A. (2010). The racialization of Muslim veils: A philosophical analysis. Philosophy and Social Criticism, 36(8), 875–902.
Alam, H. (2016, September 20). Anti-Sikh posters show up on University of Alberta campus. The Star. https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/09/20/anti-sikh-posters-show-up-on-university-of-alberta-campus.html.
Anderson, B. (1991). Imagined communities (2nd ed.). London: Verso.
Balibar, É., & Wallerstein I. (1991). Race, nation, class: Ambiguous identities (C. Turner, Trans.). London: Verso.
Bhargava, R. (2014). Should Europe learn from Indian secularism? In B. Black, G. Hyman, & G. M. Smith (Eds.), Confronting secularism in Europe and India (pp. 39–59). New York: Bloomsbury.
Coulthard, S. (2014). Red skin, white masks: Rejecting the colonial politics of recognition. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Eisenberg, A. (2009). Reasons of identity: A normative guide to the political and legal assessment of identity claims. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Eisenberg, A. (2014). Choice or identity? Dilemmas of protecting religious freedom in Canada. Recode Working Paper Series, Online Working Paper No. 24. https://www.recode.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/fin.pdf.
Galeotti, A. E. (2015) Autonomy and multiculturalism. In G. B. Levey (Ed.), Authenticity, autonomy and multiculturalism (pp. 45–65). New York: Routledge.
Grant, P. (2012). Imperfection. Edmonton, AB: Athabasca University Press.
Hick, J. (1985). Problems of religious pluralism. London: St. Martin’s Press.
Hoodfar, H. (1993). The veil in their minds and on our heads: The persistence of colonial images of Muslim women. Resources for Feminist Research, 22(3/4), 5–18.
Hopkins, N., & Greenwood, R. M. (2013). Hijab, visibility and the performance of identity. European Journal of Social Psychology, 43, 438–447.
Jaffrelot, C. (2007). The 2002 pogrom in Gujarat: The post-9/11 face of Hindu nationalist anti-Muslim violence. In J. R. Hinnells & R. King (Eds.), Religion and violence in South Asia: Theory and practice (pp. 164–184). New York: Routledge.
Locke, J. (1690). A letter concerning toleration (2nd ed.) (W. Popple, Trans.). London: Awnsham Churchill.
Modood, T. (2005). Multicultural politics: Racism, ethnicity, and Muslims in Britain. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Modood, T., & Sealey, T., (2019). Secularism and the governance of religious diversity. Concept paper for: GREASE: Religion, Diversity and Radicalisation. https://bristol.rl.talis.com;http://grease.eui.eu/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2019/05/GREASE_D1.1_Modood-Sealy_Final1.pdf
Nootens, G. (2014). Nationalism, pluralism and the democratic governance of diversity. In J. Jedwab (Ed.), The multiculturalism question: Debating identity in 21st century Canada (pp. 173–186). Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Nouh, Y. (Ed.). (2016). The beautiful reasons why these women love wearing a Hijab. Huffington Post, blog with multiple contributors. Retrieved July 2, 2018, from https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/the-beautiful-reasons-why-these-women-love-wearing-a-hijab_us_57320575e4b0bc9cb0482225
Nussbaum, M. (2012). The new religious intolerance: Overcoming the politics of fear in an anxious age. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Phillips, A. (2007). Multiculturalism without culture. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Phillips, A. (2015). Against authenticity. In G. B. Levey (Ed.), Authenticity, autonomy and multiculturalism (pp. 89–103). New York: Routledge.
‘Religion is not a race’: Quebec’s face-covering law heads for court challenge. The Current, November 09, 2017, CBC Radio. Retrieved December 13, 2017, from https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-november-9-2017-1.4393302/religion-is-not-a-race-quebec-s-face-covering-law-heads-for-court-challenge-1.4393380.
Ruby, T. F. (2006). Listening to the voices of Hijab. Women’s Studies International Forum, 29, 54–66.
Schalk, P. (2007). Operationalizing Buddhism for political ends in a martial context in Sri Lanka: The case of Simhalatva. In J. R. Hinnells & R. King (Eds.), Religion and violence in South Asia: Theory and practice (pp. 133–146). New York: Routledge.
Sikka, S. (2004). ‘Learning to be Indian’: Historical narratives and the ‘choice’ of a cultural identity. Dialogue, 53, 339–354.
Sikka, S. (2010). Liberalism, multiculturalism and the case for public religion. Politics and Religion, 3, 580–609.
Sikka, S. (2012). The perils of Indian secularism. Constellations, 19(2), 288–304.
Sikka, S. (2015). What is Indian ‘religion’? How should it be taught? In L. Beaman & L. van Arragon (Eds.), Whose religion? Education about religion in public schools (pp. 107–125). Leiden: Brill.
Song, S. (2007). Justice, gender, and the politics of multiculturalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Song, S. (2009). The subject of multiculturalism: Culture, religion, language, ethnicity, nationality, and race? In B. P. de Bruin & C. F. Zurn (Eds.), New waves in political philosophy (pp. 177–197). Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan.
Stone, S. L. (2014). Conflicting visions of political space. In R. Provost (Ed.), Mapping the legal boundaries of belonging: Religion and multiculturalism from Israel to Canada (pp. 41–55). New York: Oxford University Press.
Wing, A. K., & Smith, M. (2006). Critical race feminism lifts the veil? Muslim women, France, and the headscarf ban. U.C. Davis Law Review, 39, 743–785.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sikka, S. (2021). Pluralism About What? Religion as Belief and Identity. In: Puri, B., Kumar, A. (eds) Re-thinking Religious Pluralism. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9540-0_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9540-0_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-9539-4
Online ISBN: 978-981-15-9540-0
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)