Minimising Religious Conflict and the Racial Religious Tolerance Act in Victoria, Australia

Abstract

Religious anti-discrimination legislation in Victoria, Australia, constructively facilitates the nonviolent resolution of religious conict through legislation and litigation. The article demonstrates this argument through two detailed case studies of the 2002 complaint by the Islamic Council of Victoria against Catch the Fire Ministries, an evangelical Christian group, and the 2003 complaints by the Pagan Awareness Network and an Australian Witch. This article draws on Judith Butler’s Levinasian analysis of policy responses to conflict to argue that the ethical moment of discourse is inherently violent as the other both threatens me and potentially transforms me. Ethics is how we live in that moment of vulnerability.