The 1996 'Muslim holidays' affair: Religious competition and state mediation in contemporary Mozambique

Political commentators often cast religious conflict as the result of the n umerical growth and political rise of a single faith. When Islam is involve d, arguments about religious fundamentalism are quick to surface and often stand as an explanation in their own right. Yet, as useful as this type of explanation may be, it usually fails to address properly, if at all, two se ts of important issues. It avoids, first, the question of the rise of other religions and their contribution to tensions and conflicts. Second, it red uces the role of the State to a reactive one. The State becomes an object o f contest or conquest, or it is simply ignored. Adopting a different approa ch, this article investigates a controversy that took place in Mozambique i n 1996 around the 'officialisation' of two Islamic holidays. It looks at th e role played by religious competition and state mediation. The article sho ws that the State's abandonment of religious regulation - rite establishmen t of a free 'religious market' fostered religious competition that created tensions between faiths. It suggests that strife ensued because deregulatio n was almost absolute: the State did not take a clear stand in religious ma tters and faith organisations started to believe that the State was becomin g, or could become, confessional. The conclusion discusses theoretical impl ications for the understanding of religious strife as well as Church and St ate relations. It also draws some implications for the case of Mozambique m ore specifically, implications which should have relevance for countries su ch as Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe where problems of a similar nature have a risen.