Framing and Controlling Islam: The Interplay of Knowledge Production and Governmental Regulation in C.H. Becker’s Scholarship

Abstract

This article examines the role of knowledge production in shaping racialized religious difference and its entanglement with governmental interventions, focusing on C.H. Becker’s contributions to Islamic Studies in the 19th and 20th centuries. Situated within the colonial–imperial context of the German Empire, C.H. Becker’s work exemplifies how secular knowledge framed Islam as both a problem and a resource for governance. His framing of religious difference reveals how tolerance operated as a political technique—performing inclusion while simultaneously reinforcing control. The analysis explores the epistemological foundations of C.H. Becker’s approach, demonstrating the intersection of Orientalism, secularism, and racism in producing religious difference and translating academic inquiry into political regulation. By juxtaposing the “Islamfrage” with the “Judenfrage” of the 19th century, this study reveals shared patterns in the regulation of racialized religious difference through secular frameworks, where tolerance functions as both a mechanism of inclusion and a tool of control. These processes not only defined normatively but also aligned knowledge production with national and colonial strategies, illustrating how C.H. Becker’s conceptualization of Islampolitik is characterized by broader dynamics of liberal governance and colonial control.