For Muslim minorities, it is possible to endorse political liberalism, but this is not enough

Abstract

This article discusses the inclusion of Muslim citizens under the conception of liberal citizenship. More precisely, it considers the Rawlsian version of citizenship, which relies on the ideal of public reason and shows that Muslim and Rawlsian views make similar demands on the relationship between normative principles and empirical context. The article then explains how these two views may be linked, but insists that this result is not sufficiently satisfying. In other words, Rawls’s political liberalism is possible, but this possibility is too weak: all Muslim minorities could endorse liberal citizenship, but many should not, given the norms of revision of their doctrine, which cannot be challenged by political liberalism. For political liberalism, this raises a moral problem.