Governing Islam in Germany, Austria, and France – Subcultures, State Legislation, and Integration between Accommodation and Confrontation

Germany, Austria, and France are home to diverse Muslim communities. In Germany and Austria, the majority of Muslims hail from Turkey and the Balkans, respectively, while in France, the majority hail from the Maghreb. Initially, all three countries adopted an outsourced management approach, in which the countries of origin or larger religious organizations managed and organized the religious needs of their populations. This often led to a lack of interest in developing and diversifying subcultures. These arrangements were first pressured during the 9/11 era. Since then, states and their citizens have struggled to find new ways to engage with Muslim communities, develop a more “German”, “Austrian”, “French”, or “European” Islam, and establish a new modus vivendi with the existing structure. This has included directly approaching different groups, as well as heightened surveillance and securitization. While Germany has remained largely accommodative, France had adapted a more confrontational line, and Austria has developed the most sophisticated legislative approach, banning foreign financing and requiring communities to register as Islamic confessions with the authorities. This talk will explore the approaches, debates, and conflicts surrounding the integration of Islam in the three countries. Jan-Markus Vömel is a global historian who specializes in the history of modern Turkey and global religious movements. He recently finished his PhD on Islamist movements in Turkey at the University of Konstanz. He taught Global History and Turkish Studies at the universities of Konstanz and Freiburg, Germany. He is currently conducting research on civilizational worldmaking in Turkey and Indonesia as a postdoctoral fellow with the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in Paris, France. His recent publications include “Pathos and Discipline: Islamist Masculinities in Turkey, 1950–2000,” Zeithistorische Forschungen 3 (2021), and “Global Intellectual Transfers and the Making of Turkish High Islamism, c. 1960-1995,” in Pabuççular and Kuru, eds., Global Intellectual History—The Turkish Connection. Matthew Light studies migration control, policing and criminal justice, and public and citizen security, primarily in the post-Soviet region. His book (Routledge 2016) and several related articles on Russian federal and regional migration policies in the aftermath of the breakup of the USSR analyze what forms of freedom of movement emerged in the new post-Soviet Russian state, and frames the Soviet and post-Soviet experience with migration management in comparative international perspective. Light’s recent work concerns policing and other aspects of public and citizen security in several post-Soviet countries, including Russia, Georgia, and Armenia, and examines the evolution of both public policing institutions and private provision of security in the region.