RELIGIOUS NORMS IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE PROCEEDINGS OF A CONFERENCE HELD AT UC BERKELEY ON MAY 6-7, 2011. Edited by: CHRISTOPHER KUTZ HEDDY RISS OLIVIER ROY This work has been published by the European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, ReligioWest. This book is based on the proceedings of the conference Religious Norms in the Public Sphere: The Challenge, held at UC Berkeley on 6 and 7 May 2011. The conference was the culmination of two proj- ects: The Transatlantic Network of Scholars on Muslims Religious Identity, Secularism, Democracy and Citizenship, funded by the Partner University Funds; and The Religious Norms in the Public Sphere, funded by the Social Science Research Council. Those projects were co-financed by the UC Berkeley Center on Institutions and Governance and the Kadish Center for Morality, Law and Public Affairs at Berkeley Law School. The conference was also made possible thanks to the support of the Center for Islamic studies at the Graduate Technological Union. ReligioWest is a four year research project funded by the European Research Council and based at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy. It aims at studying how different western states in Europe and North America are redefining their relationship to religions, under the challenge of an increasing religious activism in the public sphere, associated with new religious movements and with Islam. Via dei Roccettini, 9 – I-50014 San Domenico di Fiesole (FI) – Italy Website: http://www.eui.eu/Projects/ReligioWest/Home.aspx © European University Institute 2015 Editorial matter and selection © editor Chapters © authors individually This text may be downloaded only for personal research purposes. Any additional reproduction for other purposes, whether in hard copies or electronically, requires the consent of the author(s), editor(s). If cited or quoted, reference should be made to the full name of the author(s), editor(s), the title, the year and the publisher. Views expressed in this publication reflect the opinion of individual authors and not those of the sponsors or co-sponsors. doi:10.2870/298 ISBN 978-92-9084-287-3 Funded by European Research Council 7th Framework Programme RELIGIOUS NORMS IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE Edited by Christopher Kutz, C. William Maxeiner Distinguished Professor of Law; Director, Kadish Center for Morality, Law and Public Affairs Heddy Riss, Program Director, University Of California Center On Institutions And Governance Olivier Roy, Professor At The European University Institute, Joint Chair Rscas-Chair In Mediterranean Studies TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword 7 Speaker Biographies 9 I. Religious Norms in the Public Sphere: The Challenge 12 A Comparison of the Role of Religion in Western Europe and the Mediterranean Arab World After the Arab Spring OLIVIER ROY Religion and the Public/Private Divide in the European Legal Systems 15 * SILVIO FERRARI Islam in the Secular Nomos of the European Court of Human Rights 23 * PETER DANCHIN II. The Debate of Islamic Norms in Arab Countries 28 Introduction * HATEM BAZIAN Scandals in Egypt and the Manufacturing of Religious Norms in the Public Spheres 28 * ENRIQUE KLAUS Comments 31 * CHARLES HIRSCHKIND Comments 33 * OLIVIER ROY Secularism in Arab Countries 35 * BELKACEM BENZENINE III. The Case of European Countries 40 Debating the Place of Religious Symbols in the Public Sphere in Poland, 1989-2010 * GENEVIÈVE ZUBRZYCKI “Return? It Never Left.” Exploring the “Sacred” as a Resource for Bridging the Gap between the Religious and the Secular 44 * MATTHEW FRANCIS Wearing the full veil in Europe: How the religion of some became the public concern of others 48 * VALÉRIE AMIRAUX 5 Religious Norms in the Public Sphere Standardization of the Exercise of the Islamic Religious Authority in France 57 ROMAIN SÈZE Limits of Restricting Islam: The French Burqa Law of 2010 59 * CHRISTIAN JOPPKE Comments 63 * SARAH SONG IV. The Case of North American Countries 68 Mosque Controversies in the U.S.: Emotions, Politics and the Right to Religious Freedom * PASQUALE ANNICCHINO Catholic Rituals and Symbols in Government Institutions: Juridical Arrangements, Political Debates and Secular Issues in Quebec 70 * DAVID KOUSSENS V. The Case of Asian Countries 77 Cracks in the Mosaic: The Rise of Ethnonationalist Groups in Malaysia * SOPHIE LEMIÈRE You Shall Go to Hell: Legal Arguments on Forced Conversions Before the Supreme Court of India 80 * MARCO VENTURA VI. Keynote Address 87 Norms in the Madrasa-Sphere Between Tradition, Scripture and the Public Good * EBRAHIM MOOSA VII. How to face the Challenge of Religious Norms and the Public Sphere? 96 Olivier Roy 96 Ebrahim Moosa 97 Naomi Seidman 99 Sister Marianne Farina 102 Imam Faheem Shuaibe 104 VIII. Transatlantic Network of Scholars on Muslims’ Religious Identity, Secularism, Democracy, and Citizenship 107 When Heterodoxy Challenges the Public Place of Religion: The Case of Alevism in Turkey * ELISE MASSICARD The Separation of Cult and State in Colonial Algeria 111 * SORAYA TLATLI Mediating Islamic Norms 111 * JIWA MUNIR Conclusions 118 * OLIVIER ROY 6 Religious Norms in the Public Sphere rejection by the law of a collective identity and of Introduction the promotion of a national culture, that could be FOREWORD AND SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES catholic in Italy or secular in France. An underly- ing issue is of course to know whether a common I. FOREWORD public space could be really “equal for all” in terms of religious symbols when many cultural symbols The recent years have seen, in the West, an increas- are understood also as religious (Christmas tree) ing debate on the presence of religious symbols and many religious symbols as cultural (cruci- in the public sphere (crucifix in Italy, minaret in fix). To stress a right of a minority to be protected Switzerland, veil and burqa in France, mosques, against faith or culture it does not share can lead to Ten Commandments and even Christmas trees in “void” the public space of any symbols. the USA, etc.). Most of the cases ended in court In fact when a dominant religion loses its social decisions, either local courts, supreme courts or and cultural evidence, a new issue arises: what is the European Court of Human Rights, but with the meaning of the “religious” sign? In the Lautsee no clear results in terms of defining a coherent case (the crucifix in Italian class rooms), should management of religious signs in public sphere. we consider the cross as a symbol of a faith (that Why this increasing tensions and criminalization is the resurrection of Christ) or just as a national of the debate on religion? Is this the consequence symbol, whose lingering presence says more about of a growing secularization that aims at eradicat- the secularization of religion in national culture ing any remnants of religion, or, on the contrary, than about a specific creed. It is a paradox that a “return of the sacred” that tries to reconquer the considering religious symbols as merely cultural public sphere? Are we witnessing a clash of civi- (or more exactly as having been secularized, like lizations, where traditional cultures fight against the cross, because people just stop to believe that newcomers (Islam in the West) by re-asserting a ‘Jesus is my savior”) leads also to a secularization religious identity more than a religious faith? Is this of religion. more a conflict of religiosities, that is of personal experiencing of faith, where new believers (converts And what we mean about the “public sphere”. and born-again) strive to exhibit their faith more There is an institutional one (schools, courts, than to insert it in inconspicuous social practices? government buildings), there is an informal one In any case, the debate has far reaching conse- (streets, parks, playgrounds)? But the boundar- quences: if the courts have to decide about religious ies between private and public are also more and signs, they have also to define what a religious sign more blurred: when courts interfere in circumci- is, and by consequence what is a religion, although sion or schooling issues, they do circumscribe or most national constitutions prevent the state to more exactly put limit to the right of the parents interfere with theology and internal organization to transmit, even if they by definition refer to an of faith communities. individual human right (what is more and more called “child’s rights”). The debate is also the expression of different con- flicts of rights: the individual right to believe and This book is based on the proceedings of a con- practice or not to be discriminated, the collective ference “Religious Norms in the Public Sphere: right of faith communities versus individual rights, TheChallenge” held at UC Berkeley on May 6 and the minority/ majority balance, the endorsement of 7 2011. 7 Religious Norms in the Public Sphere The conference was the culmination of two proj- the Exercise of the Islamic Religious Authority ects: The Transatlantic Network of Scholars On in France.Christian Joppke considers the French Muslims Religious Identity, Secularism, Democ- Burka Law of 2010 and the limits of restricting racy And Citizenship, funded by the Partner Uni- Islam: versity Funds; and The Religious Norms in the Pub- lic Sphere, funded by the Social Science Research The fourth section withMarianne Farina as dis- Council. Those projects were co-sponsored by the cussant consists of two presentations: Pasquale UC Berkeley Center on Institutions and Gover- Annichino on mosques controversies in the nance and the Kadish Center for Morality, Law U.S.David Koussens on the juridical arrangements and Public Affairs at Berkeley Law School. The and political debates on catholic rituals and sym- conference was also made possible thanks to the bols in government institutions in Quebec: support of the Center for Islamic studies at the The fifth session with Nargis Virani as discussant Graduate Technological Union.