Regulating islamic religious education in German states

Islamic religious education (IRE) is regulated very differently in Germany. Some states have introduced IRE as a regular subject or launched first trials in schools, whereas other states entirely lack regulation. This is puzzling, as one might consider IRE to be an effective tool for Muslim integration and a preventive measure against radicalization. In a comparative case-study design of two German states (Hessen and Baden-Württemberg), which follows a most-similar-system logic, this article shows that the historically grown relationship between the state and Christian churches in education policy is a key explanatory factor. It promotes negative moral templates toward Islam in public bureaucracies and low regulatory capacities of Muslim religious organizations, which in turn account for the backward position of Baden-Württemberg. This is one of the first studies explaining the phenomenon in Germany and integrating the research on sociological institutionalism and private governance.