Carleton University’s Melanie Adrian, assistant professor in the Department of Law and Legal Studies, has released her first book Religious Freedom at Risk.
Adrian’s new book examines matters of religious freedom in Europe, and considers the work of the European Court of Human Rights in this area. It explores issues of multiculturalism and secularism in France, of women in Islam and of Muslims in the West. The book considers ideas about submission, equality and the role of the state in public education.
“While the book focuses on Europe, there are important lessons for Canada,” said Adrian. “I look at the effects of more restrictive laws on Muslims and point to what the big picture questions are: our definitions of freedom, the future of living peaceably together and the job of the European or other courts to protect human rights.”
The book enables readers to visit a French public school located in a low-income neighborhood just south of Paris and learn about the complex dynamics that led to passage of the 2004 law banning Muslim headscarves. School culture and philosophy are compared with the thoughts and opinions of the teachers, administrators and students to see how religious freedom and identity are understood.
The book goes on to explore the issue of religious freedom at the European Court of Human Rights. Adrian argues that the right to religious freedom has been too narrowly understood and is fenced in by static visions of Islam. This jeopardizes the idea of religious freedom more broadly. By becoming entangled with regional and domestic politics, the Court is neglecting important nuances and is jeopardizing secularism, pluralism and democracy.
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