The religion of others

Abstract

In recent years, the category “religion” has developed into a powerful category in the media, academia and politics in European and German-speaking countries. It has also found its way into school language, statistics and the organization and practices of education systems as a social differentiator in the field of education, for example to identify some pupils and particular groups. This article ultimately addresses the question of how “religion” functions as a mechanism of natio-racial-culturally coded differentiation of people and the allocation of rights and duties from a critical racism perspective. Religion, like language or culture, denotes a natio-racial-cultural code of belonging. The recourse to religion for the natio-racial-culturally coded differentiation of people as well as territories and imaginary social spaces is particularly effective here, because natio-racial-cultural belonging has a religious-sacred dimension. The natio-ethno-cultural context of belonging has a sacred dimension that can be mobilized particularly forcefully through reference to the religious. This is addressed in the article with reference to the discourse on “Muslims” in German-speaking countries.