Between Term and Trope: The ‘koranskole’ in Norwegian Public Discourse

Abstract

The term koranskole has a prominent place in the public discourse on Islam and Muslim life in Norway. Despite being empirically imprecise, it is by far the most frequently used term in reference to non-formal Islamic religious education (IRE), but it is also used in other contexts with explicit or implicit referents, creating a polyvalent and at times contested concept. First coined by ethnographers studying Muslim societies, the term koranskole does not originate in Islamic educational traditions; however, it has been used both by researchers and practitioners, although today it occurs to a lesser extent among organizers of such educational enterprises than in public discourse. This article maps the use of the term koranskole in Norwegian public and scholarly discourses throughout the past century, preparing the ground for discussing the analytical vocabulary for research in this area.