Regulating Religious Coexistence

Abstract

This research would not have been possible without my research participants, whom I thank for so generously sharing their time, knowledge, struggles, and aspirations with me. I regard it as an exceptional privilege to be introduced to worlds that were previously largely unknown to me. I particularly appreciate those who have taken me along on their endeavours across various civil society settings in Malindi: I have learned so much from their incredible capacity to work with people from diverse institutional, ethnic, and religious backgrounds. I am also deeply grateful to all of those who supported me during this research project, welcoming me into their homes, their maskani, and their families. Although there are many people that I would like to thank by mentioning their names, they remain anonymous in this dissertation.On the level of scholarly support, I am indebted most of all to my supervisors, Birgit Meyer and Lucien van Liere. I cannot thank Birgit enough for seeing potential in me after I visited her office in Utrecht to discuss my plans for a PhD project with her in February 2014. I appreciate all the precious support, coaching, and feedback that she has given me, from the initial stage when this project was no more than a proposal that we eventually submitted to the Dutch Research Council (NWO), until the final edits were made to this thesis in May 2021. I also thank Birgit for reading so many drafts of lectures, chapters, blogs, and articles in between.I am also very appreciative of my second supervisor, Lucien van Liere, who always found a way to make time to discuss my project. I will always cherish our invigorating conversations next to Lucien's immense bookcase in his office in Utrecht, and the many trips we made to Ludwig for coffee. Lucien and I co-taught the course 'Religion and Conflict' at Utrecht University several times during my project, and I am also grateful to him for giving me a brilliant example of how teaching can be done in an interactive, engaged, and intellectually stimulating manner.In July 2016, at the outset of my project, I received a lot of help and feedback at the 'Muslims and Christians in Africa' summer school that was organized at the Zentrum Moderner Orient in Berlin. I had valuable conversations with