Jocelyne Cesari

This paper challenges the taken-for-granted division between religion and politics that does not reflect the fluidity and the diversity of the roles of religion in politics and vice versa. If one agrees that religion is neither good nor bad, or to put it in Alfred Stepan’s term “multivocal”, the question is: when and how does religion play a role in politics? Based on the research for my new book I contend that the role of religion in politics is better understood as a continuous set of interactions between institutions, actors and ideas in different national and international contexts. The scale to conduct this investigation is not the individual but the community level. In this respect, I suggest going back to the basics of sociology to approach religion as a societal community. It is then easier to capture tensions or alliances between religious communities and the modern political community i.e. the nation. I will apply this approach to the modern understandings of Islamic Law in Turkey and Egypt.