115
If governing Islam is to be understood as a form of state public policy,
it follows that it has its own set of particular instruments, techniques,
and tools. In the cases of Turkey and Morocco, both states conceive of
religious affairs as a distinct domain of public policy and employ spe-
cifc policy instruments to govern the religious feld. In addition, they
are both part of traditional systems of cooperation and confict between
state, parapublic, and non-state religious actors, and the expansion of
state religious activities abroad has forced both to rely even more on
the latter two sets of actors than is the case at home. Nevertheless, the
transnational context has not altered the fact that religion continues to
be framed as its own domain of public policy.
Conversely, neither France nor Germany views religious affairs as
a holistic administrative category within state policy. Religion in both
countries is subject to different regimes of state–church cooperation or
separation in which state action towards religion is fragmented between
numerous policy domains that are not necessarily in communication
with another. The question of Islam has led both states to take new
approaches to religious governance over the last years; however, and
despite their many signifcant differences, both states share the dif fculty
that they are only able to partially govern Islam.
The frst part of this chapter discusses partial governance and its
policy instruments, emphasizing that religion rarely if ever exists as
a distinct feld of state action in France and Germany. The second
CHAPTER 5
Creating a National Islam? Partial
Governance and Public Policy Instruments
© The Author(s) 2019
B. Bruce, Governing Islam Abroad, The Sciences Po
Series in International Relations and Political Economy,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78664-3_5