Assignment due in class on March 31* from anyone who has not submitted a Text Preparation
*Since part of the value of the text preparation assignment is that it will prepare you to be an active participant in tutorial and in 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 or TA to make alternate arrangements.
Please read/listen to:
Janice Gross Stein, “Religion, Culture, and Rights: A Conversation about Women” (2008)
CBC Radio “The Current,” March 31, 2008 – including documentary by Kathleen Goldhar, “Faith in the Law”: http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2008/200803/20080331.html: scroll down to bottom to "Listen to Part Three" of the program (approximately the first 22 minutes)
Suzanne Last Stone, "The Intervention of American Law in Jewish Divorce" (2000), pp. 174-85
Anna C. Korteweg, "The Sharia Debate in Ontario" in ISIM Review* 18 (Autumn 2006), pp. 50-51
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)
and address two out of the three following questions in 2-3 well-written paragraphs each (with your assignment spanning 3-4 pages total), with detailed reference to the texts. Since this is your first reading of these texts, and since we have not yet discussed them in class, you are not being asked to supply definitive answers but preliminary, thoughtful responses based on attentive reading. Your answers may also include 1-2 important questions raised by your reading for further discussion.
1. 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.)
2. According to Suzanne Last Stone and/or persons interviewed for the radio program "The Current" (March 30, 2008, including the radio documentary "Faith in the Law") (please give the names of anyone you cite), why or how does the issue of Jewish religious divorce (the get) pose a challenge for the separation of religion and secular law?
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.)