Accepting the Olive Branch? Muslim Leadership and State Accommodation in Belgium and the Netherlands

PI: Yehia S. Mekawi, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Michigan

Grant Amount and Grant Fund: $3,614, Second Century Fund

Project Abstract: I study issues of religion, identity and representation, with a focus on how the state interacts with religious minorities in advanced democracies. My dissertation covers the provision of state benefits to Muslim communities at the sub-national level in Belgium and the Netherlands. I seek to explain why sub-national governments often vary in their accommodation of Islam despite operating within shared legal frameworks; in so doing, I identify the political determinants shaping the implementation of nominally bureaucratic policies. I then turn to the political behavior of religious leaders, and examine when and how Muslim leaders decide to cooperate with or shun state-led accommodation efforts. I focus specifically on how religious leaders rely on transnational networks of support to either facilitate relations with the state or substitute them altogether.

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