THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ISLAMIC INSTITUTIONS IN A DE‐PILLARIZING SOCIETY

Abstract

In the developing welfare-state the ‘pillarized’ organizations were closely involved with the formation and implementation of government policy and, not in the least, with the distribution of social goods and services to citizens – an activity which sanctioned their raison d’etre. These activities were not only firmly anchored in social and political practice, but also in law and rules and regulations. Although de-pillarizing forces were present while these religious and socio-political barriers were being created, their influence was minimal. It was during the 1960s, with general secularization and the declining number of churchgoers, that the pillarized organizations lost their dominant position and their natural involvement in the policy-making process. Accordingly, the law and regulations were adapted on a number of issues, with as milestone the revision of the Constitution in 1983. A large number of the financial obligations of government towards religious denominations were hereby withdrawn and the separation of church and state entered a new phase. The individual acquired a more central position at the expense of the religious or ideological collective. Although these two processes more or less coincide with each other as far as timing is concerned, they are in some ways contrary to one another. This historical coincidence was to the disadvantage of Muslims, not in the least due to the fact that the self-evident place of religions in society had been affected. On the other hand, the process of de-pillarization was by no means complete, were this possible. Numerous social, political and legal practices and