Regulating Religious Coexistence : The Intricacies of Interfaith Cooperation in Coastal Kenya

Authors

• Erik Meinema

Files

Series

African Religions, Social Realities

Description

Regulating Religious Coexistence offers a compelling ethnographic analysis of how Muslims, Christians, and practitioners of indigenous African religions negotiate coexistence in Kenya’s coastal region. The book conceptualizes religious diversity as a dynamic field shaped by multiple partly intersecting and partly conflicting models of interaction. These include the political secularism promoted by the Kenyan state and civil society organizations focused on interfaith harmony, forms of competition between religious groups, and pluralistic practices in which individuals draw on multiple traditions to meet spiritual needs.

Through a close examination of civil society initiatives funded by Western donors to foster peacebuilding and to counter violent extremism, the book investigates how these models for coexistence are negotiated and contested and how they intersect with historical and contemporary patterns. It demonstrates that modes of religious coexistence in coastal Kenya have been shaped by colonial and postcolonial governance, transregional connections, and interactions between Christians, Muslims, and Traditionalists across time.

As one of the few monographs on political secularism in an African context, Regulating Religious Coexistence makes a significant contribution to scholarship on religious diversity and coexistence. It situates Christianity, Islam, and indigenous African traditions within a single conceptual framework, broadening earlier studies that mostly treated them in isolation. This book is essential reading for scholars of religion, anthropology, African studies, and political theory, offering fresh insights into the complex realities of religious diversity in Africa and beyond.

Copyright Statement

Regulating Religious Coexistence © 2026 by Ohio University Press is licensed under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Language

eng

ISBN

9780821427088

Publication Date

9-22-2026

Publisher

Ohio University Press

City

Athens

Keywords

Religious diversity in Africa, Islam and Christianity, interfaith dialogue, radicalization in Kenya, countering violent extremism, youth in Africa, African religious traditions, witchcraft and terrorism, African indigenous religion, religious pluralism, Christian secularism, political secularism, Malindi, Giriama, war on terror.

Disciplines

African Studies | Christianity | Islamic Studies | Peace and Conflict Studies | Religion | Social and Cultural Anthropology | Sociology of Religion | Terrorism Studies

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Meinema, Erik, "Regulating Religious Coexistence : The Intricacies of Interfaith Cooperation in Coastal Kenya" (2026). Ohio University Press Open Access Books. 122.
https://ohioopen.library.ohio.edu/oupress/122