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This article explores state–civil society interactions in Mozambique and South Africa with a focus on Islamic groupings, and places the two countries within an Indian Ocean coastal continuum of links to East Africa, India, and the Arab world. Contrasting the histories of dominant-party rule since the transitions in 1994 to multiparty-ism in Mozambique and to democracy in South Africa, the article discusses the development of Islamic organisations including both transnational Sufi orders and modernist reform movements as important components in local civil societies. The article contrasts the spaces for accommodation of Islamic groups that have been created in South Africa with the more radical secularism that has been in place in post-Independence Mozambique. Finally, the article discusses the effects of this contrast on possibilities for stability and democratic consolidation in the context of the 2014 elections in South Africa and Mozambique. ; This article explores state–civil society interactions in Mozambique and South Africa with a focus on Islamic groupings, and places the two countries within an Indian Ocean coastal continuum of links to East Africa, India, and the Arab world. Contrasting the histories of dominant-party rule since the transitions in 1994 to multiparty-ism in Mozambique and to democracy in South Africa, the article discusses the development of Islamic organisations including both transnational Sufi orders and modernist reform movements as important components in local civil societies. The article contrasts the spaces for accommodation of Islamic groups that have been created in South Africa with the more radical secularism that has been in place in post-Independence Mozambique. Finally, the article discusses the effects of this contrast on possibilities for stability and democratic consolidation in the context of the 2014 elections in South Africa and Mozambique.