Islamic Countries Build Mosques to Bolster Regime Stability.

• Position: RELIGION

In countries ranging from Morocco to Yemen, national mosque construction from the late 1970s through 2010 was the result of political elites' anxieties over regime instability posed by Islamist activists, according to research by Annelle Sheline, a postdoctoral fellow at Rice University's Institute for Public Policy.

Drawing on an analysis of 25 countries that recognize Islam as their official religion, she found that mosque construction increased after 1979's Iranian Revolution when political elites adopted a strategy of Islamic nation-building, using national mosque-building to manifest visually their regimes' religious authority.

A scholar of religious authority in the Middle East who also holds an appointment at Rice's Institute for Religious Tolerance, Sheline examines "the empirical puzzle of why two-thirds of officially Islamic states [in the Middle East and North Africa] constructed a national mosque between 1979 and 2010.

"Although factors such as rulers' self-aggrandizement or economic incentives likely played a supporting role, they cannot account for the specific time period, and pressures associated with Islamist activists offer the best explanation for the increase in mosque construction after 1979."

The increase of national mosque construction ultimately made the practice ubiquitous among all officially Islamic states, converting it into an important part of national identity, Sheline maintains. "National mosques in these contexts represent a nation-building strategy to undermine the standing of Islamist groups by reclaiming physical, visual, and rhetorical religious space.

"By constructing visual representations of the state's power over religion, political elites hoped to visually demonstrate their power and authority as well as undermine that of the Islamist opposition. The construction of a national mosque signals a shift in political elites' strategy of nation-building toward a greater emphasis on Islam in the public sphere and, specifically, as a component of the national identity."

Sheline focused on four cases of national mosques built after 1979, analyzing three monarchies: Jordan's King Abdullah I Mosque and King Hussein Mosque, completed in 1989 and 2005, respectively; Morocco's King Hassan II Mosque, completed in 1993; and Oman's Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, completed in 2001.

All of the 25 officially Islamic states have a large congregational mosque in their capital cities, notes Sheline. In all 25 cases, the...