The role of religion in the public sphere has been a controversial issue in many Western liberal democracies since religious minorities have raised several issues in order to request for the accommodation of their religious practices. People who support secularism and those who are devoutly religious have two opposing positions in such disputes. In dealing with most of the challenges that have arisen from secularism, the Canadian government provides multiculturalism as the solution. However, is multiculturalism truly capable of bringing solutions to the secular issues? Some argue that it is effective because they believe that people could understand and accept others who have different religious values by letting diversity exist. Yet, others …show more content…
Secularism refers to the removal of religious contents from political, social and economic realms. The reason why secularism separates religion and government into two different spheres is to reduce civic reliance on religious laws and to protect the rights of citizens in practicing any religion that they desire. Even though modern democracies are held to be secular states, not everyone is supportive of secularism. Especially, religious fundamentalists are strongly against the secularization of states. In order to balance the competing interests of each group, many liberal states such as Canada tend to promote multiculturalism as the solution to challenges that arise out secularism. This is because secularism and multiculturalism are closely related concepts that are in an interactive relationship. Secularism and multiculturalism both have the ability to exert influence on democratic concepts such as freedom of religion and modernity. This is why liberals emphasize multiculturalism, as individual freedom and equality are their crucial values. Many liberal politicians claim that the promotion of multiculturalism as their way of showing that they recognize and admit the presence of diverse people with various religious beliefs; which is a process of accommodating the large population of