Regulating islamic religious education in German states

Christian churches and social welfare in secular times: How goal congruence shapes religious involvement in morality-based social services

“…Outside the political arena, public support for the church, which can be derived from the proportion of Christian adherents in the population, constitutes a cultural opportunity structure (Knill and Preidel, 2014, 385). As empirical research has demonstrated, opportunity structures, most prominently church-state relation, are not only a key explanatory factor for religious influence on the policy adoption phase (Knill and Preidel, 2014), but also explain the extent of religious involvement in the implementation phase (Göçmen, 2013; Euchner, 2018).…”

“…There is research to back this claim. Euchner (2018), for instance, shows how variation in church-state relations between two German federal states has led to differences in the regulation of Islamic religious education in public schools. In detail, a close cooperation with Christian denominations in the field of public education made the integration of Islamic religious education as a regular subject less likely.…”

Regulatory intermediaries and value conflicts in policy implementation: Religious organizations and life‐and‐death policies in Belgium

“…Indeed, empirical studies show that religious organizations play intermediary roles in the implementation of various morality policies, such as euthanasia and assisted dying (Gastmans et al, 2006), abortion (Funk, 1996; Hien, 2019), prostitution (Euchner, 2019), stem‐cell research (Beltrame, 2017; Mintrom, 2013), assisted reproduction (Griessler & Hager, 2016), addiction (Connolly & Granfield, 2017; Jozaghi et al, 2016), as well as religious education (Ciornei et al, 2021; Euchner, 2018; Schreiner, 2015). In most of these fields, the channel used by religious organizations to engage with morality policy issues can be labeled as “interpretive intermediation” (Brès et al, 2019), whereby religious intermediaries address both policy targets and beneficiaries (Fig.…”

“…The latter do not have sufficient resources to pursue compromising or disruptive strategies; neither does the state seek their collaboration, because they lack health care infrastructure. Moreover, Muslim organizations are often dependent on state resources and harmonious relations with state agencies promoting their societal legitimacy (Euchner, 2018). This dependency pressures Muslim organizations to engage in avoidant strategies in implementation contexts with incongruent policy goals (e.g., euthanasia), supporting Expectation 2.…”

The Immigration Issue in the Field of Sociological Research

“…The scientific debate extends to hypotheses and arguments linking the migration of Muslims to the spread of right-wing popular social groups and parties in Europe, the negative attitude and xenophobia and Islamophobia of citizens. In fact, the fact that far-right parties in Europe are on the rise and showing success shows the ability of their supporters to exploit, on the one hand, the immigration issue in terms of the consequent "alienation" of indigenous culture and, on the other, religion and the controversy over religious rights (headscarves and minarets) and the role of Islam in mobilizing the population for right-wing and far-right populist positions [36], [37], [38], [39].…”