Creating a National Islam? Partial Governance and Public Policy Instruments

Abstract

Both Turkey and Morocco conceive of religious affairs as a distinct domain of public policy and employ specific policy instruments to govern the religious field. Conversely, neither France nor Germany views religious affairs as a holistic administrative category. The question of “integrating” Islam has led both receiving states to take new approaches to religious governance over the last years; however, and despite their many significant differences, both states share the difficulty that they are only able to partially govern Islam. Consequently, this chapter maintains that French and German efforts to heighten their involvement in the governance of Islamic affairs have had the paradoxical effect of creating new transnational opportunities for Morocco and Turkey to become even more implicated in religious fields abroad.