Policy responses to contestation over Islam in Norway

This thesis explores how political actors in Norway meet demands for Muslim religious accommodation, within a considerable space for political discretion, and under the conditions created by high levels of conflict over Islam. Drawing on qualitative studies of policy making processes and implementation of public policy, the thesis identifies three different patterns of policy responses in Norwegian “governance of Islam”: resistance towards politicization of Islam; adoption of similar problem presentations that create room for “acting in common”; and the delegation of mediating conflicting interests to the stage of implementing public policy. With a particular attention to the temporality of policy processes, the thesis suggests that Norwegian policymaking on Islam has undergone a shift of political emphasis, away from individual rights and towards concerns of national interests, encouraged by right-wing populist politics but also adopted by the political mainstream