Building on our critiques of the reasonable accommodation of religious minorities in Canada (see ... more Building on our critiques of the reasonable accommodation of religious minorities in Canada (see Selby et al., 2018a ; Beaman, 2017 ; Barras, 2016), this paper argues for attention to processes as intrinsic to everyday interactions of religiosity (following Tully, 1995, 2000 ; Van Quaquebeke et al., 2007). We contend that frameworks like Maclure and Taylor’s (2010) on ‘open’ and ‘closed’ secularism are useful for nation state comparison, but ineffectively account for the power asymmetries lodged within everyday religiosity. Their model protects the status quo ; it does not call institutional values or procedures into question, erases the navigation that occurs before an ‘accommodation’ is requested, and entrenches conflict as reflective of the experiences of religious minorities. Based on interviews with 90 self-defined Muslims in two cities, we propose a model of navigation and negotiation to better capture how religious practices are contextual and embedded in power relations.
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / Revue Canadienne Droit et Société, 2021
In 2019, the province of Quebec and the canton of Geneva passed bills establishing their states a... more In 2019, the province of Quebec and the canton of Geneva passed bills establishing their states as “secular.” While each law is, to a certain extent, context specific, both present noteworthy similarities. First, neutrality (the cornerstone of laïcité) is articulated around two elements: (1) restrictions that affect the religious practices of public servants belonging to minority religions and (2) protections for Christian symbols constructed as “cultural.” The article questions the implications for inclusive citizenship of formalizing regulatory regimes that differentiate between “religion” and “culture.” Second, a comparative lens enables an analysis of how, through whom, and why similar regimes of regulation travel from one area of the world to another. The article argues for the importance of considering transnational influences when analyzing the regulation of religion to better (1) understand why particular models of secularism gain traction and (2) capture power dynamics stru...
Les personnes de confession musulmane en général et les femmes musulmanes en particulier – plus e... more Les personnes de confession musulmane en général et les femmes musulmanes en particulier – plus encore celles d’entre elles installées en Occident –, se trouvent face à une situation délicate : elles sont quotidiennement confrontées à des figures hégémoniques. Dans cet article, nous examinons comment ces figures affectent la vie de nos participantes musulmanes canadiennes, et comment ces mêmes figures délimitent, dans une certaine mesure, les discours et actions de nos participantes. Notre réflexion s’ancre dans l’étude de trois archétypes masculins qui ont émergé inductivement lors de nos analyses, à savoir : le Terroriste, l’Homme éclairé et le Patriarche. Ceux-ci apparaissent régulièrement dans les interactions quotidiennes de nos participantes. Nous nous intéressons en particulier à leurs manières de réagir à ces figures : dans certains cas, elles les (re)produisent ou activent des figures féminines qui répondent à ces figures masculines ; dans d’autres, elles se les (ré)appropr...
Abstract Over the last decade, France has put in place a series of measures to reinforce laïcité ... more Abstract Over the last decade, France has put in place a series of measures to reinforce laïcité and Republican values. While these notions have never clearly been defined, they have been used as a justification to scrutinize and interfere in the bodies, sensibilities and practices of ‘Muslim’ citizens. In the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January 2015 and the November 13th terrorist attacks that same year, these policies have become ever more important, and are buttressed by new ‘extraordinary’ measures, such as the ‘State of Emergency’. This article explores these different measures, and analyzes their consequences for French citizens, especially citizens of Muslim faith. It also pays attention to political and legal strategies put forth by activists to denounce these recent shifts, and to propose a more inclusive and equal understanding of citizenship.
Refashioning Secularisms in France and Turkey, 2014
Preface 1. Introduction 2. A Tradition of Regulations: Shedding Light on the Paradoxes of Languag... more Preface 1. Introduction 2. A Tradition of Regulations: Shedding Light on the Paradoxes of Languages of Secularism 3. The Slow Exclusion of Pious Women from French and Turkish Societies: (re) producing Spaces 4. French Muslim Activists: Promoting a laicite-ante 5. Turkish Devout Activists: Reconfiguring laiklik with Human Rights 6. A Rights-based Discourse: a Door to Multiple Sites of Contestations 7. Conclusion: An Invitation to Transcend the Secular/Religious Divide
This article interrogates the extent to which institutional discourses on the governance of relig... more This article interrogates the extent to which institutional discourses on the governance of religious minorities are useful to think about the complexity of how religion gets negotiated in the quotidian. It takes as its starting point the exploration of the discourse on religious governance in the province of Quebec organized around the notion of request for accommodations. Through an analysis of public policy documents, it examines facets of this discourse of request, including the role it plays in delimiting what we imagine the religious (and Islam, in particular) to be and how we imagine it to work. Second, drawing on interviews with self-identified Muslims in Montreal, the article explores how piety gets negotiated in their everyday. These narratives are approached as fertile sites to think differently about the recognition of difference. This two-pronged perspective acts as an invitation to think more broadly about not only what institutional discourses “produce” but also what ...
In June 2012, a German regional court ruled that a child could not be circumcised unless it was f... more In June 2012, a German regional court ruled that a child could not be circumcised unless it was for medical reasons. Circumcision, in this ruling, was understood as being against the best interest of the child and his ability to freely choose his religion. However, following the ruling, and due to significant international pressures, the German Parliament passed a resolution to protect circumcision. Regardless of the outcome of this case, the repercussions will be felt far beyond Germany’s frontiers, since male circumcision transcends religious difference and instantiates belonging (at the expense of either the religious community or the greater Nation). The aim of this paper is to explore how this case is an example of how the 'sovereign' state seeks to fashion 'modern' subjects through a particular reading of secularism and religious freedom. In that process, while we sustain that this case bears several similarities with other recent cases on the predicaments of religious minorities in Western Europe, we argue that it also presents a novelty inasmuch as it offers a more complex gendered reading of secularism. We explore two ways in which this case participates to the (re) production of 'modern' subjects. First in line with other recent European cases on religious minorities, by understanding religious freedom less in terms of practice and more in terms of belief, the ruling validates a reading of secularism influenced by Christianity, where 'modern' and 'true' religion is located in one's private conscience. Second, the ruling is also an example of how readings of secularism and religious freedom enable and participate to the (re) production of 'normal' sexual subjects. While secular discourses have been used to regulate sexuality and intimate life, they have almost exclusively been framed as a ‘woman’ issue: one need only think of weddings, divorces, and debates on polygamy, headscarves and burkas. Male circumcision, we contend, challenges the manner in which gender and sexuality enter narratives on religious freedom and secularism. By documenting these two aspects, the paper argues for the importance of locating this ruling within a web of power relations that structure European and western approaches to religious minorities and plurality.
For the last two decades the human rights' discourse has been increasingly used across the w... more For the last two decades the human rights' discourse has been increasingly used across the world-one could argue that there has even been a globalization of human rights. This discourse has also, been intrinsically linked to positivism, enlightenment and secularism. It ...
This article contributes to the current scholarly discussion by inviting us to look at secularism... more This article contributes to the current scholarly discussion by inviting us to look at secularism not as a static model of religious governance, but as a formation that shifts with time and that is deeply related to our contemporary understanding of religion. As such, it investigates the recent transformations of French secularism. In 2004 France passed a law banning visible religious symbols in public schools. Since then French secularism has increasingly become a sacred – non-negotiable – element of collective life. Drawing on Kim Knott's concept of the ‘secular sacred’, the article investigates, through an analysis of policy reports, law proposals and laws, how this discursive usage of secularism has been used to set apart particular spaces from others: secular spaces that carry the ‘supreme’ values of secularism. In this process, the role of public servants and citizens has been changing, as they have been invested with the responsibility of policing the boundaries of these spaces. New tools, such as charters of secularism, laws and regulations, and state bodies are being imagined to consolidate these boundaries. The article also explores how ‘religious resurgence’ (and more specifically ‘Islamic resurgence’) has been essential to this ‘sacred-making’ activity: to give substance to values that are non-negotiable and need to be separated from those that are not. Overall, the piece posits, in line with other recent works, that sacred-making is not reserved to the ‘religious’, but can become a central component of how secularism gets articulated and deployed. In so doing, it underscores the importance of documenting how meanings given to secularism shift to grasp the politics that underpin discourses on religious resurgence.
This article maps the repercussions of the use of reasonable accommodation, a recent framework re... more This article maps the repercussions of the use of reasonable accommodation, a recent framework referenced inside and outside Canadian courtrooms to respond to religiously framed differences. Drawing on three cases from Ontario and Quebec, we trace how the notion of reasonable accommodation—now invoked by the media and in public discourse—has moved beyond its initial legal moorings. After outlining the cases, we critique the framework with attention to its tendency to create theological arbitrators who assess reasonableness, and for how it rigidifies ‘our values’ in hierarchical ways. We propose an alternative model that focuses on navigation and negotiation and that emphasizes belonging, inclusion and lived religion.
... wearing of religious symbols in the public sphere. Among interesting cases filed on the issue... more ... wearing of religious symbols in the public sphere. Among interesting cases filed on the issue we can note the case of Karaduman v. Turkey (1993) and ECHR, Sahin v. Turkey (2005). View all notes. Although the court did not ...
Building on our critiques of the reasonable accommodation of religious minorities in Canada (see ... more Building on our critiques of the reasonable accommodation of religious minorities in Canada (see Selby et al., 2018a ; Beaman, 2017 ; Barras, 2016), this paper argues for attention to processes as intrinsic to everyday interactions of religiosity (following Tully, 1995, 2000 ; Van Quaquebeke et al., 2007). We contend that frameworks like Maclure and Taylor’s (2010) on ‘open’ and ‘closed’ secularism are useful for nation state comparison, but ineffectively account for the power asymmetries lodged within everyday religiosity. Their model protects the status quo ; it does not call institutional values or procedures into question, erases the navigation that occurs before an ‘accommodation’ is requested, and entrenches conflict as reflective of the experiences of religious minorities. Based on interviews with 90 self-defined Muslims in two cities, we propose a model of navigation and negotiation to better capture how religious practices are contextual and embedded in power relations.
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / Revue Canadienne Droit et Société, 2021
In 2019, the province of Quebec and the canton of Geneva passed bills establishing their states a... more In 2019, the province of Quebec and the canton of Geneva passed bills establishing their states as “secular.” While each law is, to a certain extent, context specific, both present noteworthy similarities. First, neutrality (the cornerstone of laïcité) is articulated around two elements: (1) restrictions that affect the religious practices of public servants belonging to minority religions and (2) protections for Christian symbols constructed as “cultural.” The article questions the implications for inclusive citizenship of formalizing regulatory regimes that differentiate between “religion” and “culture.” Second, a comparative lens enables an analysis of how, through whom, and why similar regimes of regulation travel from one area of the world to another. The article argues for the importance of considering transnational influences when analyzing the regulation of religion to better (1) understand why particular models of secularism gain traction and (2) capture power dynamics stru...
Les personnes de confession musulmane en général et les femmes musulmanes en particulier – plus e... more Les personnes de confession musulmane en général et les femmes musulmanes en particulier – plus encore celles d’entre elles installées en Occident –, se trouvent face à une situation délicate : elles sont quotidiennement confrontées à des figures hégémoniques. Dans cet article, nous examinons comment ces figures affectent la vie de nos participantes musulmanes canadiennes, et comment ces mêmes figures délimitent, dans une certaine mesure, les discours et actions de nos participantes. Notre réflexion s’ancre dans l’étude de trois archétypes masculins qui ont émergé inductivement lors de nos analyses, à savoir : le Terroriste, l’Homme éclairé et le Patriarche. Ceux-ci apparaissent régulièrement dans les interactions quotidiennes de nos participantes. Nous nous intéressons en particulier à leurs manières de réagir à ces figures : dans certains cas, elles les (re)produisent ou activent des figures féminines qui répondent à ces figures masculines ; dans d’autres, elles se les (ré)appropr...
Abstract Over the last decade, France has put in place a series of measures to reinforce laïcité ... more Abstract Over the last decade, France has put in place a series of measures to reinforce laïcité and Republican values. While these notions have never clearly been defined, they have been used as a justification to scrutinize and interfere in the bodies, sensibilities and practices of ‘Muslim’ citizens. In the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January 2015 and the November 13th terrorist attacks that same year, these policies have become ever more important, and are buttressed by new ‘extraordinary’ measures, such as the ‘State of Emergency’. This article explores these different measures, and analyzes their consequences for French citizens, especially citizens of Muslim faith. It also pays attention to political and legal strategies put forth by activists to denounce these recent shifts, and to propose a more inclusive and equal understanding of citizenship.
Refashioning Secularisms in France and Turkey, 2014
Preface 1. Introduction 2. A Tradition of Regulations: Shedding Light on the Paradoxes of Languag... more Preface 1. Introduction 2. A Tradition of Regulations: Shedding Light on the Paradoxes of Languages of Secularism 3. The Slow Exclusion of Pious Women from French and Turkish Societies: (re) producing Spaces 4. French Muslim Activists: Promoting a laicite-ante 5. Turkish Devout Activists: Reconfiguring laiklik with Human Rights 6. A Rights-based Discourse: a Door to Multiple Sites of Contestations 7. Conclusion: An Invitation to Transcend the Secular/Religious Divide
This article interrogates the extent to which institutional discourses on the governance of relig... more This article interrogates the extent to which institutional discourses on the governance of religious minorities are useful to think about the complexity of how religion gets negotiated in the quotidian. It takes as its starting point the exploration of the discourse on religious governance in the province of Quebec organized around the notion of request for accommodations. Through an analysis of public policy documents, it examines facets of this discourse of request, including the role it plays in delimiting what we imagine the religious (and Islam, in particular) to be and how we imagine it to work. Second, drawing on interviews with self-identified Muslims in Montreal, the article explores how piety gets negotiated in their everyday. These narratives are approached as fertile sites to think differently about the recognition of difference. This two-pronged perspective acts as an invitation to think more broadly about not only what institutional discourses “produce” but also what ...
In June 2012, a German regional court ruled that a child could not be circumcised unless it was f... more In June 2012, a German regional court ruled that a child could not be circumcised unless it was for medical reasons. Circumcision, in this ruling, was understood as being against the best interest of the child and his ability to freely choose his religion. However, following the ruling, and due to significant international pressures, the German Parliament passed a resolution to protect circumcision. Regardless of the outcome of this case, the repercussions will be felt far beyond Germany’s frontiers, since male circumcision transcends religious difference and instantiates belonging (at the expense of either the religious community or the greater Nation). The aim of this paper is to explore how this case is an example of how the 'sovereign' state seeks to fashion 'modern' subjects through a particular reading of secularism and religious freedom. In that process, while we sustain that this case bears several similarities with other recent cases on the predicaments of religious minorities in Western Europe, we argue that it also presents a novelty inasmuch as it offers a more complex gendered reading of secularism. We explore two ways in which this case participates to the (re) production of 'modern' subjects. First in line with other recent European cases on religious minorities, by understanding religious freedom less in terms of practice and more in terms of belief, the ruling validates a reading of secularism influenced by Christianity, where 'modern' and 'true' religion is located in one's private conscience. Second, the ruling is also an example of how readings of secularism and religious freedom enable and participate to the (re) production of 'normal' sexual subjects. While secular discourses have been used to regulate sexuality and intimate life, they have almost exclusively been framed as a ‘woman’ issue: one need only think of weddings, divorces, and debates on polygamy, headscarves and burkas. Male circumcision, we contend, challenges the manner in which gender and sexuality enter narratives on religious freedom and secularism. By documenting these two aspects, the paper argues for the importance of locating this ruling within a web of power relations that structure European and western approaches to religious minorities and plurality.
For the last two decades the human rights' discourse has been increasingly used across the w... more For the last two decades the human rights' discourse has been increasingly used across the world-one could argue that there has even been a globalization of human rights. This discourse has also, been intrinsically linked to positivism, enlightenment and secularism. It ...
This article contributes to the current scholarly discussion by inviting us to look at secularism... more This article contributes to the current scholarly discussion by inviting us to look at secularism not as a static model of religious governance, but as a formation that shifts with time and that is deeply related to our contemporary understanding of religion. As such, it investigates the recent transformations of French secularism. In 2004 France passed a law banning visible religious symbols in public schools. Since then French secularism has increasingly become a sacred – non-negotiable – element of collective life. Drawing on Kim Knott's concept of the ‘secular sacred’, the article investigates, through an analysis of policy reports, law proposals and laws, how this discursive usage of secularism has been used to set apart particular spaces from others: secular spaces that carry the ‘supreme’ values of secularism. In this process, the role of public servants and citizens has been changing, as they have been invested with the responsibility of policing the boundaries of these spaces. New tools, such as charters of secularism, laws and regulations, and state bodies are being imagined to consolidate these boundaries. The article also explores how ‘religious resurgence’ (and more specifically ‘Islamic resurgence’) has been essential to this ‘sacred-making’ activity: to give substance to values that are non-negotiable and need to be separated from those that are not. Overall, the piece posits, in line with other recent works, that sacred-making is not reserved to the ‘religious’, but can become a central component of how secularism gets articulated and deployed. In so doing, it underscores the importance of documenting how meanings given to secularism shift to grasp the politics that underpin discourses on religious resurgence.
This article maps the repercussions of the use of reasonable accommodation, a recent framework re... more This article maps the repercussions of the use of reasonable accommodation, a recent framework referenced inside and outside Canadian courtrooms to respond to religiously framed differences. Drawing on three cases from Ontario and Quebec, we trace how the notion of reasonable accommodation—now invoked by the media and in public discourse—has moved beyond its initial legal moorings. After outlining the cases, we critique the framework with attention to its tendency to create theological arbitrators who assess reasonableness, and for how it rigidifies ‘our values’ in hierarchical ways. We propose an alternative model that focuses on navigation and negotiation and that emphasizes belonging, inclusion and lived religion.
... wearing of religious symbols in the public sphere. Among interesting cases filed on the issue... more ... wearing of religious symbols in the public sphere. Among interesting cases filed on the issue we can note the case of Karaduman v. Turkey (1993) and ECHR, Sahin v. Turkey (2005). View all notes. Although the court did not ...
Uploads
Papers by Amelie Barras