Scholars have long discussed how such countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran intervene strongly in their domestic religious issues. Although power relations between different political and religious actors are complex, it is – from the perspective of these national states – a task to politically govern religion and religious actors. By contrast, ‘secular’ counties prefer to think of religious policy in terms of political regulation of a non-political sphere in society: Direct intervention in religious affairs is viewed critically, but regulative political means (including prohibitive legal action) are very common. However, in some cases, religious policy moves beyond regulation towards strong intervention which might be called “formation”.

The presentation discusses this kind of religious policy drawing on examples from countries with historically Muslim majorities. We ask whether this religious policy is a particular type of policy that is employed beyond the regulative policies and whether this religious policy is limited to semi-authoritarian political systems or particular religions.