Can Mosque and State Be Separated? Should They? The ‘Divine Pattern,' Freedom, and Modernity

Can religion and state be separated from each other in an Islamic context? This chapter takes both historical and theoretical approaches to this question, beginning with an overview of the origins of Islam as a religious and political community in seventh-century Arabia and moving through its centuries of territorial expansion and medieval educational developments. This leads to theoretical questions concerning the primacy of sharī‘a within Islam and how the latter affects the possibility of a separation of mosque and state. After addressing contemporary views on both sides of the debate, I argue that how one answers this question revolves in great part around one’s embrace of or skepticism toward modernity. The chapter closes with a brief case study from Morocco’s unique imam-training institute, providing a window into that country’s particular admixture of religion and state and its implications for Muslim societies in the modern world.