Fields of contentious politics : policies and discourse over ‘Islam vs. Christianity

Religion has emerged as a contentious issue, owing to religious diversity that migration has brought in, and its subsequent intertwining with a number of key issues such as the enforcement of border control, threats to national security, radicalisation and terrorism. In particular, Muslims have become conspicuous because of their status as outsiders vis-à-vis (allegedly) Christian citizens, thereby becoming the object of mobilisation of other actors, including political parties looking for votes, interest groups, policy-makers, social movements, as well as a large volume of other allies and opponents across the policy and public spheres. Having put the contentious politics of ‘Islam vs. Christianity’ in a broader historical context, this chapter engages with the contentious politics of religion via an analysis of the ‘institutional field’ and the ‘discursive field’ respectively. In so doing, I show the limits of a narrowing agenda that simply aims at recognising who is (or is not) a citizen, while arguing in favour of the emergence of an alternative framework of ‘ontological citizenship’ which focusses on content of citizenship in terms of access to equality and decision-making.