Secularism has been a controversial concept in Islamic political thought, owing in part to historical factors and in part to the ambiguity of the concept itself.In the Muslim world, the notion has acquired strong negative connotations due to its association with removal of Islamic influences from the legal and political spheres under foreign colonial domination, as well as attempts to restrict public religious expression by some secularist nation states.

Combination of religion and the state in Muslim majority nations entails defining the doctrine of Islam as the principal source of legislation, reserving the presidency to a member of a specific religious community, formal contracts between the state and reli- gious institutions, and concordats that define various rights and forms of cooperation.