ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the crisis of multiculturalism obscures the more fundamental issues of religious difference that are increasingly seen as major threats to social cohesion and inclusion. Growing migrant religious communities have provoked responses from political leaders, officials and commentators. This chapter reviews New Zealand, as a case study of the playing out of these issues and tentative solutions. New Zealand was fortunate to have profoundly rewritten its national story from a monocultural tale to biculturalism at the same time as it informally embraced multiculturalism. The chapter provides a brief account of state sovereignty focusing on religion. The modern history of religion has been characterised by states seeking to restructure and manage religions so that they might serve state interests. Focusing on religion as it relates to the issues of migration and settlement before the late 1980s, New Zealand was almost exclusively Christian, with tiny Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu communities.
