Difference and negotiation from the borders: Islamic religious actors providing theological counternarratives for deradicalisation in Belgium

Religion State & Society, vol. 49, pp. 331–349

Abstract

This contribution focuses on the specific Islamic authority figures that have been incorporated as ‘key figures’ in Belgian deradicalisation policies since 2015, in order to formulate a theological counter discourse. It asks firstly how these Muslim authority figures differentiate their position as ‘non-state’ actors manoeuvring a space of negotiation in secular power structures. Secondly, the contribution reflects on how they negotiate what Talal Asad has called ‘the secular episteme’ in their formulation of a theological counternarrative, as well as on how this relates to processes of ethical self-making and ‘apt’ authority formation. Rather than considering them as docile agents of the secular sovereign state, the concept of ‘border thinking’ is used to value the inter- and intra-traditional situatedness from where they attempt to renegotiate the horizons of expectations subscribed in hegemonic secularism.

Authors 1

1. Mieke Groeninck corresponding Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden Institute for Area Studies and Leiden University Centre for the Study of Religion, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands