This master's thesis is concerned with the regulatory relationship between the English State on the one hand and Anglican Christianity and Islam, respectively, on the other. The primary focus is on the current nature of this relationship and on the complex challenges and ongoing negotiations that have unfolded during the second half of the twentieth century and at the beginning of the twenty-first. Challenges that were complicated for the State during the period of immigration and settlement in the sixties, seventies and eighties, seemed to escalate with the Rushdie-affair, 1989, and the subsequent emergence of an Islamic identity, only to reach unprecedented tension within the English society following the suicide bombings in London on July 7th, 2005.

In order to map this current state of matters, the thesis opens with the historical background for the relationship between the early modern State and religion between 1534 and 1689. The reformation of Henry the 8th gave birth both to a steadily growing administrative apparatus and a distinct English Christian Church very fittingly named the Church of England. In this joint emergence, both State and Church struggled to resolve the nature of their affiliation with one another. This was finally determined in the legal recognition of freedom of religion and tolerance of dissidents, both religious and political.

Following a somewhat theoretical discussion about regulation as government and control of conduct in the distinct mindset of Michel Foucault and his ideas on governmentality, the thesis goes on to apply this perspective to the relationship between State and religion as it is framed within multiculturalism. The relationship is shown to be understood and regulated as a so-called differentiated citizenship that demands responsibility of both the Christian and the Islamic communities along with an ongoing examination of the foreign and unfamiliar norms and values of the Muslim community in England.

Being the by far largest religious community in England, the Church of England sees it as its responsibility to use its close relations with the State and its considerable autonomy to influence public policies towards religion in general and Islam in particular. It does so publicly in parliament, and it criticises the way the government handles Islamic demands for religious independent and limited legal autonomy, especially in private and family matters. Currently, it remains unresolved how the State is to regulate Muslim affairs, but a restatement of inclusive common norms for conduct and community seems to be preferable to mutual and destructive non-recognition between the State and Islamic communities.