Work Package 3

Islam, Citizenship, and Security

Work Package 3 examines the relationship between Islam, constitutional law, citizenship, and national security. It asks how legal and constitutional frameworks influence social cohesion, public trust, civic identity, and the state’s reliance on coercive forms of authority.

This work package challenges simplistic assumptions that link religion, security, and militarism. Instead, it studies how the constitutional recognition of religious values may, under certain conditions, support more inclusive and less coercive forms of citizenship. It explores whether legal systems that acknowledge Islamic values can strengthen legitimacy, reduce social polarization, and contribute to more stable relations between state and society.

The work package focuses on issues such as military authority, securitization of religion, legal trust, religious education, civic formation, and faith-based legal mobilization. It examines how governments use legal and religious narratives in security policy, but also how citizens and civil society actors draw on religious and legal resources to claim rights, build trust, and promote peaceful constitutional engagement.

By linking constitutional sociology with the study of security and citizenship, Work Package 3 contributes to a new understanding of security grounded not only in state control, but also in legitimacy, moral trust, civic participation, and social cohesion.