«Churchification of Islam» – a by-product of governance of religion in contemporary nation states

Abstract

The article looks at the governance of Islam in contemporary nation states through the prism of what is called ‘churchification’ of Islam. The notion of church here is taken as a pure sociological category free of any Christian connotations, although, admittedly, the early stage of conceptualization of church sociologically, by Ernst Troeltsch and Max Weber, was to a great extent based on analysis of Christian colletivities. It is argued in the article that the observed phenomenon of ‘churchification of Islam’ is a constitutive feature or even a by-product of governance of Islam in such Muslim-minority contexts as Europe. The article further argues that ‘churchification of Islam’ may be a useful analytical tool in not only explaining the dynamics of institutionalization of Islam in Muslim-minority contexts, like Europe, but could be extended to Muslim-majority contexts.