An Outline of the Construction of the Islamic Council for Prisons in Belgium

Abstract

For historical, institutional and cultural reasons, in Belgium the Roman Catholic Church is an implicit and explicit reference model for the institutionalization of other faiths. In this sense, it directly influences Islam since 1974. One of the consequences of the slow and long process of the institutionalization of Islam in Belgium is the prison chaplaincy. On the basis of a series of interviews with key actors managing Muslim chaplaincy issues and with chaplains themselves, this chapter offers an analysis of the discourses and on the institutional frame of the observed processes in Belgium. The focus goes on what spiritual care means in the frame of a loud debate on religious radicalizations in prison. Furthermore, particular attention is given to the complexity of the institutional context influencing the conception of the new profession of Muslim chaplains and a slow process of legitimation for a “publicly useful” Islam. The picture drawn reflects the complexity of the Muslim community, the moving socio-graphs of the prison context, the expectations of public authorities, the pragmatics of the professional actors and the multiple aspects of the profession of prison chaplain containing a “glocal” dimension.