Between Rhetoric and Reality: Shari'a and Neo-Liberal Multiculturalism in Australia

Abstract

The past decade has been characterized by attacks upon and critiques of multiculturalism. This has been particularly the case in Europe, where in the context of the European sovereign debt crisis a politically driven, anti-multicultural contagion has spread at rapid pace. It is clear that multiculturalism in Europe faces immense political challenges from its opponents, many of whom currently constitute ruling governments. Leaders and or opposition parties in Switzerland, Germany, The United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands have made strong public statements against multiculturalism and linked this rejection to the presence of Muslim populations.  Banting and Kymlicka note that even though multicultural policies may remain in place in many of these nations, the ‘delegitimisation of the word multiculturalism is not just a change in discourse, but jeopardises the very conditions under which multicultural policies can actually work’. It would be easy to consider that in this context, multiculturalism has a dim future.

 This paper, based upon extensive research conducted for an Australian Research Council funded study examines the ‘retreat from multiculturalism’ in Australia through the debate about shari’a, legal pluralism and Islamic finance. It offers important insights into the dimensions of a new neoliberal multiculturalism in Australia.  

Biography

Joshua M. Roose [J.Roose@uws.edu.au] is a senior research officer of the Religion and Society Research Centre at the University of Western Sydney, Australia working on an Australian Research Council-funded study examining shari’a and legal pluralism in Australia and the United States. In 2013, he served as a visiting scholar and researcher on the same project (with Professor Bryan Turner) at the Committee for the Study of Religion at City University of New York. He is also a co-convenor of The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) “Ethnicity, Migration and Multiculturalism” thematic group with a focus on religion and multiculturalism.