Integrating Islam: Political and Religious Challenges in Contemporary France

Jonathan Laurence and Justin Vaïsse, Integrating Islam: Political and Religious Challenges in Contemporary France (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2006).

Review by Alec G. Hargreaves, Florida State University

This is by far the most comprehensive and best documented book available in English on the Muslim population in France. It works systematically through the now sizeable body of research and other evidence available on Muslims in France and finds that they are working with the grain of French society far more than is often thought. In chapter after chapter, we see that, contrary to widespread myths about the alleged incompatibility of Islam and French republican values, the vast majority of Islamic organizations and individual Muslims in France seek equality within the Republic on the basis of its constitutional principles, including that of laïcité, rather than through shariah-based separatism. The principal obstacles to the incorporation of Muslims in French society are shown to reside not in any reluctance on their part to integrate but in socio-economic inequalities, Islamophobic prejudices, and ethnic discrimination.

After laying out this thesis in Chapter One, the authors document in Chapter Two the prejudices and exclusionary attitudes with which Muslims have had to contend. Chapter Three discusses the "1001 Ways of Being Muslim" in France, underscoring the diverse and rapidly evolving ways in which succeeding generations of Muslims have adapted the religion of their forebears. If, as the authors argue, there are signs of a process of re-Islamization with the emergence of a third generation of Muslim heritage, this is not to be equated with Islamism. Instead of seeking to impose a political vision of Islam on French society, young people identifying themselves as Muslims appear more commonly to seek in Islam a sense of personal worth and collective dignity to compensate for social marginalization. The diverse and fragmented nature of the Muslim population is reflected in the organizational structures that have sprung up around it. These are examined in Chapters Four and Five, which show that while the principal federations of Muslim organizations have agreed to work together in the Conseil...