Page 181 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

Citizenship 167

heritages has been encouraged in public. Kymlicka argues that these
groups do not require such extensive group - differentiated rights as nations.
Their main aim is to be integrated into the multicultural society of which
they are a part and to enjoy equal respect with other citizens. Minority
groups in a polyethnic society will generally enjoy those rights common
to all citizens, in his view. They should also, however, have some distinc-
tive rights, in order to avoid disadvantages suffered as a result of their
difference from the dominant culture and to combat racism (Kymlicka,
1995 : 30 – 1).
To a limited extent, distinctive rights have been granted to ethnic
minorities in some countries. In Britain, for example, Jews and Muslims
are exempt from laws which would make it impossible for them to slaugh-
ter animals in accordance with their traditional methods, and Sikhs may
wear their turbans instead of the crash helmets required by law. In addi-
tion, in recent years, Muslims, Seventh Day Adventists, and Hindus have
won the right, already enjoyed by Christians and Jews, to government
funding for schools in which the curriculum will be organized around
these religious faiths. This has been very controversial because of the
importance given to education in forming personal and social identity.
Indeed, multiculturalism in mainstream education is perhaps the most
highly developed aspect of multicultural policies around the world. It
involves the recognition of the history, literature, and religion of cultural
minorities, and often the celebration of different festival days. Although
it is not actually a legal right as such, multicultural education is seen as
offering children from minority groups genuine equal access to educa-
tional opportunities, as well as encouraging tolerance, if not understand-
ing, from the majority population. In a sense, then, and paradoxically,
faith schools are seen as opting out of multiculturalism because they have
much more control over the curriculum and the intake of pupils than do
mainstream schools. Most controversially, the possibility of institutional-
izing Shari ’ a law has been proposed and debated in Canada, which
already allowed Jewish and Catholic organizations to set up arbitration
tribunals to regulate family disputes. The issue was resolved in this case
when the government decided to equalize the communities, not by allow-
ing Muslim courts, but by closing down Jewish and Catholic ones instead.
There are ongoing campaigns both for and against introducing Shari ’ a
law in Canada and elsewhere, including the UK, and it will surely become
an issue again (Phillips, 2007 : 170 – 6).
The most prominent example of a state that has resisted adopting

multiculturalism as official policy is France. Interestingly, anti - racists as
well as those sympathetic to the anti - immigration rhetoric of the National