Recognizing Religious Minorities, Nationalism and State-Sponsored Multiculturalism

This paper examines the ways in which states are driven by nationalist agendas in responding to claims for recognition, inclusion and accommodation made by religious minority groups. It takes as case studies settler societies which were founded through colonization, and in subsequent waves of diverse immigration. I show here that policies and discourses of multiculturalism form the context which shape and influence state responses to religious minority claims, and that such policies are driven by the projection and promotion of national identity at home and abroad. State reasons and justifications on these grounds for multicultural policies in the post-War period explain why successive governments of the Right and Left are challenged by the claims of religious groups which are not bounded by ethno-cultural communities. I argue that the factors that drove multiculturalism -- modernization, a rejection of racist historical pasts, promotion of good relations globally and with trade partners, as well as the encouragement of trade and investment – are less applicable to recognizing religious diversity divorced from ethno-cultural identity. Consequently, settler states have had difficulties in developing a framework with which to respond to religious recognition claims. I present a comparative analysis of policies towards Muslim religious communities in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, all post-colonial societies with Indigenous peoples and diverse ethno-cultural minorities formed as a result of large-scale post-Second World War immigration. All three states developed multiculturalism policies in the 1970s and 80s in which governments promoted cultural diversity in order to support foreign trade, investment and economic development, as well as projects of national identity construction and promotion. Human rights norms preventing discrimination based on race and ethnicity were adopted as a consequence. The claims accommodated under multiculturalism focussed on the expression of culture, and religious expression was defined in terms of cultural claims. Growing Muslim communities in each country case have made claims for specifically religious recognition, inclusion and accommodations, divorced from ethno-cultural claims. I examine the influence of ethno-cultural policies and public discourses on governments responding to the claims of minority religious groups. Influential studies of multiculturalism and religious minorities (see eg: Tariq Modood, G.B Levey, Cécile Laborde, Veit Bader), focus on the ethical dimensions of recognizing minority religions in the context of secular societies. My focus in this paper is instead on the ways in which the recognition and accommodation of cultural and religious minorities are shaped by the nationalist agendas of the state.