Skip Navigation


Journal of the American Academy of Religion Advance Access originally published online on October 21, 2007
Journal of the American Academy of Religion 2007 75(4):814-839; doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfm064
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
75/4/814    most recent
lfm064v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Stoker, V.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the American Academy of Religion. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Zero Tolerance? Sikh Swords, School Safety, and Secularism in Québec

Valerie Stoker

Valerie Stoker, Department of Religion, 3640 Col. Glenn Hwy, Dayton, OH 45435-0001, USA

E-mail: valerie.stoker{at}wright.edu


  Abstract

This article examines an officially resolved, yet still controversial, debate over the right of Sikh students in Québec to carry kirpans (or ceremonial daggers) as markers of religious identity to public school. It documents the ways in which conflicting Canadian and Québécois conceptions of secularism influenced how various non-Sikh participants in the debate responded to Sikh presentations of the kirpan. Yet, it also demonstrates how Sikh activists selectively engaged the competing discourses on secularism in ways that furthered their interests. Although Sikhs were forced to defer to dominant sensibilities in articulating their religious traditions, their alignment of those traditions with mainstream values helped to preserve their distinctive identity. At the same time, Sikh activists forced non-Sikhs to reevaluate the purpose of secularism, an issue of fundamental concern to national and regional identity. Thus, by analyzing the interplay of arguments in this case, this article illuminates the various ways in which debates over minority religious expression shape formations of the secular.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.