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Customs/Morality: Customs are the shared practices and traditions of a group of people. They are often passed down from generation to generation and can vary widely from culture to culture. Morality is the set of principles that guide people's behavior and attitudes. It is based on what people believe to be right and wrong. Morality can be influenced by factors such as religion, culture, and personal experiences.
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Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments.

 
Author Concept Summary/Quotes Sources

Multiculturalism on Customs/Morality - Dictionary of Arguments

Gaus I 254
Customs/morality/multiculturalism/Kukathas: Headscarves affair: [France 1989]: in this instance, a problem arose because three North African immigrant women in a French public secondary school chose to wear their headscarves in class, in a gesture that was interpreted as a challenge to the national policy of secularism in schools. As Bhikhu Parekh notes, this issue 'went to the heart of the French conceptions of citizenship and national identity and divided the country' (2000(1): 250). But it also divided political theorists (Galeotti, 1993(2); 1994; Moruzzi, 1994a(3); 1994b(4)). Cf.>Religion/Multiculturalism
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Privacy/liberalism/problem: on this, as on many other occasions, the liberal contention that individuals should be left free to live by their own lights in matters that are of private and not public concern does not help to resolve things. Even the matter of what one eats has a public dimension since there are laws governing the treatment of animals, and in particular the slaughtering of animals for human consumption.
Conflicts: Religious demands for kosher or halal meat go against laws providing for the humane slaughter of animals in Europe. And to the extent that religious and cultural groups can gain exemptions to allow ritual slaughter or killing for sport, multiculturalism turns out not only to be bad for animals but problematic for political theory (Casal, 2003)(5). What is to be
Gaus I 255
regarded as a public issue and what as private itself becomes a matter of political and philosophical disagreement. This is even more evidently the case when disputes centre on state symbols, the official status of languages, and the timing of holidays.
Solutions: while Kymlicka' s philosophical response(6) to this has been a theory of group-differentiated citizenship, with specific rights for immigrant and indigenous minorities,
others have responded with calls for a slowing or halting of immigration from culturally different
people (Brimelow, 1995)(7) or restricting the granting of citizenship to those who have more completely assimilated into the ways of their new society (Pickus, 1998)(8). For some, the nation-state is indeed the expression of a specific ethno-cultural group, and to try to create a multicultural state is therefore a mistake (Auster, 1992)(9). >Cultural rights/Levy, >Culture/Kymlicka, >Group rights/Political Philosophy, >Minority rights/Kymlicka.

1. Parekh, Bhikhu (2000) Rethinking Multiculturalism: Cultural Diversity and Political Theory. London: Macmillan.
2. Galeotti, Anna Elisabetta (1993) 'Citizenship and equality: the place for toleration'. Political Theory, 21 (4): 585-605.
3. Moruzzi, Norma Claire (1994a) 'A problem with headscarves: contemporary complexities of political and social identity'. Political Theory, 22 (4): 653—72.
4. Moruzzi, Norma Claire (1994b) 'A response to Galeotti'. Political Theory, 22 (4): 678_9.
5. Casal, Paula (2003) 'Is multiculturalism bad for animals?' Journal of Political Philosophy, 11 1-22.
6. Kymlicka, Will, ed. (1995b) The Rights of Minority Cultuæs. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
7. Brimelow, Peter (1995) Alien Nation: Common Sense about America's Immigration Disaster. New York: Random House.
8. Pickus, Noah M. J. (1998) 'To make natural: creating citizens for the twenty-first century'. In Noah M. J. Pickus, ed., Immigration and Citizenship in the Twenty- First Century. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 107-40.
9. Auster, Lawrence (1992) 'The forbidden topic: the link between multiculturalism and immigration'. National Review, 27 (April).

Kukathas, Chandran 2004. „Nationalism and Multiculturalism“. In: Gaus, Gerald F. & Kukathas, Chandran 2004. Handbook of Political Theory. SAGE Publications

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Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments
The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition.
Multiculturalism
Gaus I
Gerald F. Gaus
Chandran Kukathas
Handbook of Political Theory London 2004


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