Sabah Boudalia
Pronouns:
Research Mentor(s): Yehia Sherif Mohamed Fakhry Mekawi
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Political Science Department / LSA
Program:
Authors:
Session: Session 7 4:40-5:30 p.m. Hussey Room
Poster:
Abstract
Incorporation is a recognized regulatory framework in which European states expect Muslim leaders to actively involve themselves in exchange for the state’s financial support. Initially viewed as an optional bureaucratic procedure for mosque funding, successful engagement with incorporation policies now symbolizes a mosque’s distinguished approval from the state. This dynamic involves decision-making on both ends: Muslim leaders determining whether to engage, and the state deciding whether to approve or provide grants. Past literature has often simplified Muslim leadership’s considerations, reducing them to logical outcomes driven by financial needs rather than the carefully contemplated decision that it is. Past perspectives also frame incorporation as a federal issue, portraying the state as a promoter of uniformity that consistently favors incorporation, disregarding regional policy execution variations. To challenge these assumptions and offer a nuanced explanation for implementation differences, this research introduces partisanship and network capacity as variables influencing incorporation outcomes. This research seeks to comprehend the implications of incorporation policies, like recognition, within the broader context of state-Islam relations in Europe, considering the roles of partisanship and transnational networks in bureaucratic incorporation. This work intends to gauge the impact of these variables on the degree of bureaucratic incorporation of Islam in European states, using Belgium as a central case study. With its clearly defined recognition policy that poses mosques as a unit of analysis and its decentralized governance structure comprising three autonomous regions, the Belgian incorporation experience is the ideal entry point to understanding incorporation.
