Politics of Religious Freedom in Southern Africa Academic Workshop University of Cape Town February 5-6, 2014 Sponsored by: A.W. Mellon Foundation Henry R. Luce Foundation, Politics of Religious Freedom project (http://iiss.berkeley.edu/politics-of-religious-freedom/) The right to religious liberty is a powerful and enduring feature of contemporary ethical, legal and political thought. Recent work in intellectual history and the comparative history of ideas, however, has begun to question reigning narratives advancing the simultaneous neutrality and universality of the right to religious freedom and to provide more complex assessments of the multiple histories and genealogies of religious freedom. Two critical trajectories in particular have emerged: one which reexamines early modern European and post-Enlightenment histories and anthropologies of the right to religious liberty and seeks to make visible both their provincial character and contingent relationship to rival religious and political projects; another which analyzes the development of the concept of religious liberty in non-Western histories during the colonial and post-colonial periods in order to re-think the normative and prescriptive accounts of religious liberty often found in international law and human rights debates. In light of these critical engagements, this workshop aims to explore the kinds of politics being carried out today in the name of religious freedom in Southern Africa, the forms of normative contestation and hybridization that have occurred, and both the colonial and postcolonial origins and agendas of religious liberty. Disagreements about religious freedom often unfold around certain themes which, while specific to certain historical and political contexts, also cut across this specificity and reveal the structural tensions that haunt debates around religious freedom. Some of the key themes around which conflicts occur include: religious freedom conceived as an individual versus a collective right; the proper “source(s)” or philosophical basis of religious freedom as a human right; the place of and protections accorded to minorities in a democracy; the proper boundary between religion and state; and what religion is imagined to be in struggles over religious liberty, including the belief/practice dichotomy. In the context of the contemporary politics of religious freedom in southern Africa, the workshop will address aspects of these themes in six sessions over two days. In particular, the sessions will address questions of (1) what constitutes “religion” and a proper religious subjectivity; (2) the relationship between religious liberty and political secularism; (3) competing ethical and philosophical understandings of religious freedom conceived as a “right”; (4) the law and politics surrounding the recognition of Muslim marriages; (5) the relationship between religion and culture as currently contested in issues of customary law and tribal courts; and (6) jurisprudence on the right to religious freedom in both Southern African constitutional and international law. Participants will not be asked to submit or present formal papers but rather to submit a 34 page memo prior to the workshop responding to the themes of their session and to discuss their contribution in a roundtable format. To see a recent public discussion series on the Social Science Research Council blog The Immanent Frame in which scholars from different fields were asked to consider the multiple histories and genealogies of religious freedom see: http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/the-politics-of-religious-freedom/. Organizers Dr. Louis Blond, Senior Lecturer, Jewish Thought and European Philosophy, UCT Peter Danchin, Professor of Law, University of Maryland; A. W. Mellon Visiting Professor, UCT Invited Participants Hon. Dr. Ali Ahmad, Member, 7th National Assembly, House of Representatives, Nigeria; formerly Lecturer and Head, Department of Public and International Law, Bayero University, Nigeria Dr. Waheeda Amien, Senior Lecturer in Law, UCT T. W. Bennett, Professor of Law, Department of Public Law, UCT Laurence Bloom, Visiting Lecturer in Philosophy, UCT David Chidester, Professor of Comparative Religion and Chair of Religious Studies, UCT Danwood Chirwa, Professor of Law and Head of the Department of Public Law, UCT Nathasha Erlank, Professor and Head of Historical Studies, University of Johannesburg Nomboniso Gasa, Independent Researcher on Gender, Politics, Leadership and Cultural Issues Chuma Himonga, Professor of Law, Department of Private Law, UCT Dr. George Hull, Lecturer in Ethics and Philosophy, UCT Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Associate Professor of Political Science, Northwestern University Mazibuko Jara, Research Associate, Traditional Courts Bill, Centre for Law & Society, UCT Jonathan Klaaren, Professor of Law, University of the Witwatersrand Dr. Annie Leatt, Lecturer in Buddhism and Critical Thought, Religious Studies, UCT Rashida Manjoo, Associate Professor of Law, Department of Public Law, UCT Dr. Sibusiso Masondo, Senior Lecturer, School of Religion, Philosophy & Classics, University of KwaZulu-Natal Fatima Osman, Lecturer in the Department of Private Law, UCT Dr. Nyameko Barney Pityana, Revd. Canon Professor & Rector of College of the Transfiguration Annette Seegers, Professor and Head of Faculty of Political Studies, UCT Sa’diyya Shaikh, Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and Feminist Theory, UCT Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, Professor of Religious Studies and Law, Indiana University 2