Essays on Culture, Religion and Rights [Paperback]

A rigorous examination of the issues raised by cultural and religious pluralism.Culture and religion are overlapping phenomena: cultures are normally understood to subsume religions, and religions are very often central to cultures. The two are particularly closely associated when we focus on the kinds of difference that generate issues for public policy.The world has always been culturally and religiously diverse, but recent movements of population have intensified the internal diversity of societies. That increased diversity has presented societies with a number of pressing questions. How much should cultural differences matter? Can they and should they be treated impartially? Should they receive equal recognition and what sort of recognition might that be? Are cultural and religious differences at odds with human rights thinking or do universal human rights demand respect for those differences? When the demands of a religious faith clash with those of a societys rules, which should take precedence? Should the religious have to endure whatever burdens their beliefs bring their way, or should they be accommodated so that their religious faith does not become a source of social disadvantage? Should they have to put up with unwelcome treatments of their beliefs or should they be protected from the offensive and the disrespectful? These are some of the many issues examined in Culture, Religion and Rights.PrefaceIntroduction1. Political Theory and Cultural Diversity2. Human Rights and Diverse Cultures: Continuity or Discontinuity?3. Collective and Group-Specific: Can the Rights of Ethno-Cultural Minorities be Human Rights?4. Equality, Recognition and Difference5. Bearing the Consequences of Belief6. Belief, Autonomy and Responsibility: The Case of Indirect Religious Discrimination7. Liberty, Equality, and Accommodation8. Religious Exemption and Distributive Justice9. Conscientious Claims, Ill-Founded Belief, and Religious Exemption10. Blasphemy, Offensiveness and Law1lÃ%