ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the impact of growing cultural and religious diversity. They each investigate the possibility of rules that can promote the idea of living together. The issue of management and regulation of religious diversity was raised in a postcolonial context that has retained an official religion – namely, the Church of England – and in which discussions concerning the status of minorities and multiculturalism date back a few decades. Society in general had been faced with a number of inter-ethnic tensions that were exacerbated by the racist murder of a young black man named Stephen Lawrence in 1993, while the religious dimension of these tensions had been present since the Rushdie Affair of 1989. The governmental commissions established after September 2001 place more emphasis on the concern for equality between men and women; they also mention the issues of Islam and the hijab as being catalysts for heated debates, particularly in France and Belgium.
