Deliberating across Difference: Religious Accommodation and Deliberative Democracy

This paper examines two cases of deliberation on the issue of religious arbitration in Canada: first, the Sharia law debate in Ontario (deliberation in the larger public sphere); and second, a deliberation on religious arbitration in British Columbia (deliberation in a small-scale structured setting...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Afsahi, Afsoun (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill [2020]
In: Journal of law, religion and state
Year: 2020, Volume: 8, Issue: 1, Pages: 34-61
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Canada / Deliberative democracy / Religious pluralism / Publicity / Discussion
IxTheo Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
KBQ North America
ZC Politics in general
Further subjects:B Multiculturalism
B religious accommodation
B religious arbitration
B Deliberative Democracy
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:This paper examines two cases of deliberation on the issue of religious arbitration in Canada: first, the Sharia law debate in Ontario (deliberation in the larger public sphere); and second, a deliberation on religious arbitration in British Columbia (deliberation in a small-scale structured setting). Relying on both secondary and original data, this article demonstrates that while the Sharia law debate failed to fulfill the key functions of a deliberative engagement, the small-scale deliberation was able to achieve all three functions: participants had the chance to express their opinions; there was ample dialogue and communication evident by increased empathy, perspective-taking ability, and knowledge gains; and finally, participants were able to come to a decision, however broad, together. Through this comparison, the article highlights key barriers to deliberation across differences and concludes with some suggestions for carrying out such engagements in the future.
ISSN:2212-4810
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of law, religion and state
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/22124810-00801003