On the Viability of State-Church Models: Muslim Burial and Mosque Building in France and the Netherlands

Abstract

Do national institutional repertoires of religious governance still have an effect on the accommodation of Muslims' religious needs in France and the Netherlands? Or do they become inconsequential because of increasing European pressures on liberal democracies to accommodate? Comparing the institutional accommodations towards Muslims in the burial domain and the building of mosques, this article argues the impact of national repertoires to be visible when sensitive to differences in kind. The relevant comparative question should no longer be whether governments accommodate Muslim demands for recognition, but which demands are accommodated, in what ways, and for what reasons.