Sovereignty and Secularization (RS 3CC3)
Fall 2012

TEXT PREPARATION 4

Assignment due in class on November 15*

*Since part of the value of the text preparation assignment to help you prepare the reading assignment for a particular class, it may only be submitted in class on the day it is due.  If you have to miss that day's class, please contact the instructor to make alternate arrangements.

This assignment is based on:
  • Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, "Civil and Religious Law in England: A Religious Perspective" (Lecture before the Royal Courts of Justice, February 7, 2008) [please number the paragraphs on your printout]
  • Janice Gross Stein, "Religion, Culture, and Rights: A Conversation about Women" (2008)
  • Anver M. Emon, "Islamic Law and the Canadian Mosaic: Politics, Jurisprudence, and Multicultural Accommodation" (2008) (feel free to skim pp. 405-410) 
  • Natasha Bakht, "Were Muslim Barbarians Really Knocking On the Gates of Ontario? The Religious Arbitration Controversy - Another Perspective" (2005) 
In well-written paragraphs, a total of 600-750 words, please address two out of the three following questions, with detailed reference to the texts.

1. What does Rowan Williams mean by "plural jurisdiction," and how does he view this concept as key to developing a renewed understanding of the relationship between civil and religious law?

2. According to Janice Gross Stein, why or how are women's rights especially affected in decisions about the rights that are due to religious groups?  (Feel free to also comment on the bearing of Bakht's article on this question.)

3. What does Anver Emon see as the potential for "accommodation of Islamic law within national rule of law frameworks," and how does his view relate to the positions argued for by Rowan Williams?  (You might also comment on how the positions of Emon and/or Williams are rooted in their characterizations of what shariah/Islamic law is.)

As was the case for the Text Summary assignment, your observations in the Text Preparation assignment should be backed up with references that allow your reader to see what they are based on; for this purpose, please use parenthetical page references - for an example of these, see Harvey, Writing with Sources, p. 51, under "MLA Basic Rules."  For parenthetical references to Williams, please use "Williams, para." plus the paragraph number.  For parenthetical references to the other texts, please use author name + page number.

Please indicate the total word count at the end of your assignment.

Note: Since this is your first reading of this text, and since we have not yet discussed it in class, you needn't aim for definitive answers but preliminary, thoughtful responses based on close attention to the text.  Your fuller understanding will develop in the course of our class meetings, and with successive re-readings.

**Please print your assignment double-spaced and with one-inch margins, using a 10-12-point font.  Please number and staple the pages you hand in. 

Please keep a copy of your summary to refer to in our class discussions.

 

posted November 7, 2012