For almost thirty years now—after a long period of falling into oblivion—the concept of civil society has been discussed widely. The sector model of civil society as a space with clear-cut borders is no longer desirable to measure civil society, especially when research only seeks to collect data on volunteer work, social capital of certain demographic groups, or public funding of clubs and associations. It was held that the specific tradition of American civil society, with its emphasis on self-government and distance from the state, had contributed significantly to the development of such a sector. When it comes to the relation between religion and (secular) civil society, most commentators, including radical Islamist ones, all too readily suppose a strict opposition between the two. According to Jeffrey Alexander, civil society is organized around certain cultural codes and narratives, a symbolic sphere of collective consciousness structured according to the dichotomy of pure/impure or sacred/profane.