Difference and negotiation from the borders: Islamic religious actors providing theological counternarratives for deradicalisation in Belgium

Abstract

This contribution focuses on the specific Islamic authority figures that have been incorporated as ‘key figures’ in Belgian deradicalisation policies since 2015, in order to formulate a theological counter discourse. It asks firstly how these Muslim authority figures differentiate their position as ‘non-state’ actors manoeuvring a space of negotiation in secular power structures. Secondly, the contribution reflects on how they negotiate what Talal Asad has called ‘the secular episteme’ in their formulation of a theological counternarrative, as well as on how this relates to processes of ethical self-making and ‘apt’ authority formation. Rather than considering them as docile agents of the secular sovereign state, the concept of ‘border thinking’ is used to value the inter- and intra-traditional situatedness from where they attempt to renegotiate the horizons of expectations subscribed in hegemonic secularism.