ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the 2021 state contract between the City of Hamburg and three Islamic communities, a unique document that constituted a landmark approach in Germany when it comes to the relationship between the State and Islam. In the first part, I present the contract as a negotiation process by focusing on its contextualization: how the contract is termed as ‘state contract’, how a myth of origin was created and how certain actors were involved, while others were left out. In the second part, I frame the contract as a material manifestation of recognition, which created ‘house rules for Islam’ by using Hamburg narratives to entangle Islam and the city and establish a communal-religious identity. The discursive classification of the contract as ‘for Islam or for Muslims’ refers to the central tension between the two poles that structure the broader discourse on Islam in Europe: institutionalization and subjectification. Concluding the analysis, I will address these two poles and argue how they are affected by this legal agreement.
