Abstract:
The relationship between politics and religion in Muslim countries has become a much debated and
discussed issue among scholars of Islam and Muslim societies. A commonly stated view of many
Western and Muslim scholars and activists is that Islam is not only a religion but also a blueprint for
social order, and therefore encompasses all domains of life, including law and the state. It is then
argued that this striking characteristic is what sets Muslim societies apart from Western counterparts
that are based upon the separation of state and religion. After examining these and related issues, the
paper reports empirical evidence, which shows that institutional configurations form an important
factor in mediating and articulating the nature of the relationship between religion and politics in
Muslim countries. Two types of configurations—undifferentiated and differentiated—are identified.
Undifferentiated institutional configurations refer to social formations in which religion and the state
are integrated. In contemporary discourse, such a formation is labeled as an Islamic state. In contrast,
differentiated institutional configurations refer to social formations in which religion and politics—by
constitutional requirement or by tradition—occupy separate spaces. The empirical evidence discussed in
the paper indicates that, in general, the trust placed in religious institutions and consequently their
public influence are greater in Muslim countries with differentiated institutional configurations than in
those with undifferentiated ones. In general, trust in religious institutions is directly related to trust in
political institutions. The paper offers some theoretical underpinnings for this and other findings, and
argues that undifferentiated Muslim societies tend to take on the characteristics of differentiated
societies over time. An Islamic state, therefore, might also provide a route to the social and political
development of a Muslim society in which religion and politics coexist in an autonomous but mutually
cooperative relationship.
