State regulation of religious symbols: is subsidiarity beneficial for the inclusion of religious organizations into the deliberative process? The case of Muslim organizations in Switzerland

Should democratic regulation of religious symbols be a local or national prerogative? This paper tackles this normative question in the context of its parliamentary emergence in Switzerland. Swiss subsidiarity in general and in religious matter in particular has raised in a context of cantonal religious homogeneity. With the contemporary intra-cantonal religious pluralism, the old justification is weakened and some ask for a prerogative transfer of the religious symbols issue to the federal level. This paper seeks to assess if this transfer is legitimate and for what reasons. From the assumption that religious issues should to some extent be regulate through a democratic process, and especially a deliberative one, we discuss the specificities of the deliberative process at both the local and national level. Drawing on the case study of the building of the “Law on Laicity” in the Geneva canton, we illustrate the participation of Muslims organizations in a deliberative process on a local level. We then discuss the potential effects of a change of level on the participation of Muslims organizations. We finally claim that a transfer of competence only of the issue of religious symbols risk to (cause the marginalization from) compromise the deliberative process of religious organizations, and especially Muslims ones.