Tolerating Religious ‘Others’

Some Thoughts on Secular Neutrality and Religious Tolerance in Australia

Authors

  • Holly Randell-Moon Macquarie University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/arsr.v22i3.324

Keywords:

law, tolerance, religion, secularism, neutrality, multiculturalism

Abstract

In this paper, I examine the assumptions that underpin secular neutrality and how they might block government attention to religious inequality and obscure occurrences of religious discrimination in society. A secular state’s neutrality is underpinned by the idea that religious belief is a private and individual choice. As such, the legal maintenance of a state’s neutrality results in the scrutiny of religion as an individual practice. As well as concealing the institutional privileging of certain religions by secular states, the privatisation and individualisation of religious beliefs bought about by secular neutrality has implications for the ways in which the state deals with religious discrimination. I argue that rather than fostering a climate of religious tolerance, a state’s neutrality can mask religious inequality and potentially prohibit a state from addressing this inequality in the name of neutrality.

Author Biography

  • Holly Randell-Moon, Macquarie University
    Holly Randell-Moon teaches Cultural Studies at Macquarie University, Sydney. She has publications on race, religion, and secularism in the Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies, borderlands, and Transforming Cultures ejournals, as well as a chapter in the book Religion, Spirituality and the Social Sciences.

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Published

2010-01-29

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Randell-Moon, H. (2010). Tolerating Religious ‘Others’: Some Thoughts on Secular Neutrality and Religious Tolerance in Australia . Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 22(3), 324-344. https://doi.org/10.1558/arsr.v22i3.324