With contributions from some of the leading experts in the area of law and religion and covering a range of very different European countries including Turkey, the UK, Italy and Bulgaria, this book uses comparative case studies to illustrate how practice varies significantly even within Europe. It reveals how familiarization with religious and philosophical diversity in Europe should lead to the modification of legal frameworks historically designed to accommodate majority religions. This in turn should give rise to recognition of new groups and communities and eventually, a more adequate response to the plurality of religions and beliefs in European society.

1: Religion and Rethinking the Public-Private Divide; I: Religions and the Public/Private Divide; 2: Public and Private, a Moving Border; 3: Socio-Historical Perspectives on the Public and the Private Spheres 1; 4: The 'Public-Private' Divide on Drift; 5: Religious Freedom and the Public-Private Divide; 6: The 'Public' and the 'Private' in the Common Law and Civil Law Traditions and the Regulation of Religion; 7: Contested Normative Cultures; 8: Religion in the European Public Spaces; II: Religion and the Dress Codes; 9: From Front-Office to Back-Office; 10: Religious Dress Codes; 11: Religious Dress Codes in the United Kingdom; 12: Religious Dress Codes; 13: Religious Dress Codes; 14: Comparing Burqa Debates in Europe; III: Religion and the Places of Worship; 15: The Right to Establish and Maintain Places of Worship; 16: The Places of Worship in France and the Public/Private Divide; 17: 'Stopp Minarett'? The Controversy over the Building of Minarets in Switzerland; 18: Places of Worship