About this Book

Often when a religious minority challenges mainstream Canadian
customs, the phrase "reasonable accommodation" and its
boundaries are at the centre of the ensuing debate. But what exactly is
reasonable accommodation? Does it achieve its goal of integrating the
rights of religious minorities with those of mainstream
society - or does it emphasize inequality?

Reasonable Accommodation features eight interdisciplinary
essays addressing how reasonable accommodation is defined within Canada
and abroad through law and public discourse. These probing explorations
based on empirical studies and legal cases touch on current hot-button
topics such as women's right to wear the niqab in public,
religious diversity in prisons, and accommodating sexual diversity.
Woven through the chapters are questions and commentary about whether
there really is a religious majority in Canada, how the idea of
"shared values" obscures debate, and how tolerating
religious differences simply isn't enough to guarantee equality.
Reasonable Accommodation provides a much-needed critical
assessment of this phrase and theorizes religious diversity and freedom
of religion beyond the meaning of "tolerance" as it
sometimes implies.

Combining perspectives from the fields of law, religious studies,
political science, philosophy and sociology, Reasonable
Accommodation is a must-read for professors, researchers, students
and policy-makers interested in religion and multiculturalism in
Canada.Lori G. Beaman is Canada Research Chair in the
Contextualization of Religion in a Diverse Canada, director of the
Religion and Diversity Project and a professor in the
Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of
Ottawa.

Contributors: Natasha Bakht, James A. Beckford,
Peter Beyer, Gary D. Bouma, Avigail Eisenberg, Solange Lefebvre,
Ole Riis, and Heather Shipley.