TY  - JOUR
A1  - Dagistanli, Selda
A1  - Possamai, Adam
A1  - Turner, Bryan S.
A1  - Voyce, Malcolm
A1  - Roose, Joshua
T1  - The limits of multiculturalism in Australia?
BT  - The Shari’a flogging caseof R v. Raad, Fayed, Cifci and Coskun
JF  - The Sociological Review
N2  - This article focuses on the marginal extremities – the limits – of Shari’a practices in Australia, through the example of a criminal case in which four Sydney-based Muslim men whipped a Muslim convert to punish him for his excessive consumption of drugs and alcohol. The men claimed they acted in line with the doctrines of Shari’a practice to ‘purify’ or absolve the victim of his sins. While the case was tried before a magistrate in a lower court, it is argued in this article that its social and political significance was wider, reaching into contemporary debates around multiculturalism and immigration from non-western, non-liberal and mainly Muslim nations. Mainstream media and political narratives viewed the whipping as an example of the moral dangers of accommodating Shari’a norms, eliding the differences between peaceable Shari’a and its violent extremities, while situating the case at the limits of multicultural accommodation. This article interrogates the objectionable margins of some cultural practices through this limit case. At the same time it questions the limits or limitations of a multiculturalism that homogeneously views the practices of entire ethnic or religious groups as violent and incommensurable with dominant norms, while using these understandings as a justification for marginalising these groups.
KW  - limits
KW  - multiculturalism
KW  - Muslims
KW  - racism
KW  - Shari’a
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026118768133
SN  - 0038-0261
SN  - 1467-954X
VL  - 66
IS  - 6
SP  - 1258
EP  - 1275
PB  - Sage Publ.
CY  - London
ER  -