State-Funded Faith-Based Schooling for Muslims in the North

Abstract

An emerging option in several European countries has been the state provision of publicly funded Islamic education. It is an alternative that lies at the heart of concerns over religious freedom, equal rights to education, integration, and social cohesion, but that is also connected to matters of securitization and the state’s attempt to control Islam. This article compares the provision of faith-based schooling in general, but publicly funded Islamic education in particular, in Finland and Sweden—two neighboring countries, historically and culturally connected, but with a different approach to faith based schooling.