Negotiating a balance

The majority of French Muslims negotiate a fine balance between the demands of their Muslim identity and French citizenship through identity tinkering (attempt to assimilate/render this dichotomy non existent) ( example: I am here, I live in France, so I am French).

Olivier Roy argues that it is difficult to classify the various expressions of Islam in a secularized context.
Meaning that, for example:
"so religious leaders may support the wearing of the hijab without imposing it, while at the same time condemning radical Islamism.

----> The religious discourse then becomes one of value, faith and the private sphere rather than a religious normative discourse dictating personal behavior within a secular polity.

According to French sociologist Hugues Lagrange:
Religious revivalism is a social indicator that the state is failing to generate hope and connectedness; thus leaving a social gap that is increasingly occupied by alternative, often radical, Islamic ideologies.

For the last 20 years, an imported Salafist proselytism has gained ground in France particularly among the young disenfranchized Muslims of the banlieues, and has preached and imposed stricter practices.
binary code (which is enforced through communitarian boundaries): good (halal) / evil (haram)

Although the Salafist minority (visible minority) often in contradiction with the values of the French Republic and the silent Muslim majority, they do not necessarily advocate violent jihad.

Only 10% Jihadist are Salafis.

Contemporary studies show that the majority of Salafis are peaceful and that the greater Knowledge of Islam inoculates individuals against extremism (they do not all advocate for a violent jihad).

But they do provide, through their proselytism, a fertile ground for radicalization by exploiting Muslim youth's feeling of disenfranchisement and alienation.

A Visible Minority

Over the years, after many terrorist attacks, French Muslims have become the center of public debate and social relegation. While a great majority of French citizens hold favorable opinions about Islam, the media has played a critical and decisive role in the creation of a reductionist binary image of Islam.

Semantics shift in French media and political discourses by which "migrant" = "Muslim"
the spread of anti-Muslim sentiments and a more pronounced wave of Islamophobia that 9/11 attacks.

Anti-Muslim sentiments in France (& other parts of Europe) = A response to a combination of hyper media visibility, difficulties of integration and terrorist attacks.
(debate about national identity, 2009: about status of Islam in France, laïcité debate, 2011)

Islam is painted is incompatible with French secular republican values (by the media channels).

Ehile French people largely have a positive opinion of Islam in general, they do not however believe that Islam is compatible with democracy.

This article focuses on the discourse of Islamic religiosity among religious leaders in France, and how such discourses reveal diverse approaches and understandings of Islamic religiosity in the context of secular French society.

Different intensities in Islamic religiosity among religious leaders reveal diverse approaches and understanding of Islamic religiosity ----> fragmentation of religious leadership discourses ----> direct impact on Muslim Youths (social belonging, civic engagement).

Muslim leadership and the Question of Islamic Visibility in French Society:

For the participating imams, the question of "visibility" of Islamic religiosity is an important one that distinguishes intensities, degree or level of Islamic religiosity.

Greater importance is given to the degree of observance of Islamic norms/ethics rather than to the visibility of religiosity through rituals and practices.

This visibility to which a radical minority of religious leaders and Muslim followers are particularly attached has become problematic in the hyper mediatized French debate about Islam.
This overshadows the great majority of Muslims who often embrace a moderate approach towards Islamic religiosity.

2 types of Islamic leadership can be distinguished:

While rituals and practices are important for some imams, ethics or deeds are often more significant than other aspects of faith; including the visible observance of certain norms.

Inward faith and observance of deeds, therefore become more important than the outward signs of Islamic religiosity.

These religious leaders preach an Islam that is based on tolerance, acceptance and fraternity with more of an outward orientation.

Whereas the others who form a radical minority follow a more close type of Islamic faith that is more communitarian and inward in its outlook towards society and the French state.

The Pedagogical role of religious leadership:

Religious leadership is vital to creating an openness of the mind and involves building an understanding of each other, of each other's culture and each other's religion.

Such a leadership defines Islam not only as a faith but also as a pedagogical tool that allows Muslim migrants and their descendants to integrate while still recognizing their own unique cultural distinctiveness, thereby contributing positively to diversity.

Compatibility with French laïcité

According to these religious leaders, Islam is not perceived to be incompatible with French laïcité.

In fact: the emphasis on the deeds rather than visibility can be better understood within the French context of secularism.

The French Muslims have had to adopt to an increasingly aggressive version of secularism.

And it has managed to adopt to its socio-political environment by focusing an individual faith and observance of deeds rather than the external manifestation of the faith.

This is what Olivier Roy describes as "individualization of Islam" where there is higher valorization of faith, primordial significance of individual choice and rationalization of belief.

Another reaction to aggressive French Secularism:
----> Out of a deep sense of alienation, a minority religious leaders have retreated and found refuge in a communitarian Islamic identity.

This identity is defined around the notions of "haram" vs "halal" (and where the notion of visibility in asserting this identity becomes even more critical).

The way religious leaders approach preach and practice Islam within France helps determine whether fully integrate into French society or not.
----> By focusing on deeds and individual faith, accomodation and adaptation become possible. ----> Believers are presented with a paradigm that goes beyond belonging to a community or assertion of a community identity.

Role of religious leadership in navigating tensions

The focus on values of individual faith and universal ethics among leaders is particularly important when dealing with young people and converts who may already be experiencing a sense of alienation and discrimination, and who have a very limited knowledge of their religion.
Example: the case of Mohammad Merah and the Kouachi Brothers (the Charlie Hebdo attack perpetrators) ----> without proper religious pedagogical guidance, there is a risk for some to be attracted to radical religious leaders.

Very often:
- these individuals have already experienced social difficulties.
- they are often uneducated, unemployed, and petty criminals.

Religious leaders, in this context, see the lack of religious knowledge as a reason why so many young men have departed to fight in Syria.

Religious leadership in Islam is particularly critical as they play a significant role in guiding and shaping their community and the individual members of that community.
----> Understanding discourses of Islamic religiosity by listening to the vision and voices of religious leaders is particularly revealing because they have the potential to shape attitudes within a diverse Muslim community.
----> It is this vision that provides insights into reaction and interaction with French society, determines whether there can be a French Islam as well as how or whether this Islam can be accomodated within French secularity in ways that promote civic engagement and active citizenship.

Islamic leadership ----> critical responsibility

The values and teachings advocated by religious leaders often represent the core basis that will shape the individual's understanding of not only their faith, their community and in the wider French society.

----> This is particularly significant when it comes to young French Muslims or converts who may already feel marginalized and are in need of spiritual guidance and a certain sense of belonging, meaning and purpose which French society has thus far denied them.

"what is really difficult for young Muslims is this non-recognition of Islam in the public sphere, the lack of representation of places of worship".
conceiving that this country does not respect them and they feel to be in the extreme.

"we need politicians to give appropriate space for Islam so that Muslims can feel at home instead of feeling targeted, marginalized".
If not, then there is alienation and calls to leave the country.

Fragmentation of Religious leadership

The fragmentation of French Islamic leadership can partly be understood as a reactionary manifestation of Islam's interaction with French laïcité, but it is also symptomatic of tensions and internal division within Islam itself.
----> results in ---->
the ability to push French Muslim youth further away from mainstream society and towards adopting increasingly anti-social behaviors.
such a behavior is characterized as exhibiting a literal minimal and communitarian understanding of Islam centered around visibility and the domain of the forbidden and permissible: haram vs halam.

"Moderation is the solution" (Imam Hameed, Grenoble, 2014).

For fringe conservative religious leadership, the sense of alienation is so great that they describe France as foreign to them and as a promoter of the oppression of Muslims (land of kafir/unbelievers).

(p.12) "Religious leaders teaching only about God is not enough. They need to teach in a way that brings the believer closer to all dimensions of Islam: how faith in God translates into religious practices and rituals that unfold as good social behavior, ethical responsibility as well as civic and social engagement" (quote on page 12).

Young French Muslims tend to live their religiosity within the visibility paradigm and therefore experience the exclusion of their religion from the public sphere as an intense experience of social rejection.

For the minority of Muslim youth who follow a visible Islam, a religiosity is a tool of identity and resistance.
----> According to religious leaders, young people who follow a more visible strand of Islam in France are those who did not have a religious education since their eearly childhood.

Family, they argue, is the first place for religious education, and too often the role is left to the mosque.
problem in pedagogym of comprehension of Islam among youth.
Discovering Islam at a later age creates a problem of societal rupture and rejection (in quote 13).

Religiouss leaders and Muslim families are also facing the new challenge of addressing the circulation of information through social media and its impact on the French Muslim youth.

The role of religious education needs to be questioned and see how it can contribute in assisting young Muslims to become full-fledged citizens.

Mosques as vectors of counter-radicalization

With Europe experiencing an increased number of terrorist attacks, mosques are perceived as places where individuals become exposed to narrow teachings of Islam and ideas that lead to their radicalization and potential violence.

Wanting to build mosques (symbol of Islamic identity) in France tends to be interpreted as an alien and aggressive assertion of a particular religious identity and viewed as being incompatible with secularity.

Mosques play an undeniable important role in any Muslim community as a physical and spiritual place of gathering where believers gather to commune.
BUT
very often their role as a place for socialization civic engagement and social insertion are often overlooked and misunderstood.

The presence of mosques as places of socialization, spirituality, guidance, and education had the effect of sitancing youth from more anti-social behavior.

The role of mosques is important in actively engaging French Muslim youth, assisting in creating feelings of belonging and avoiding outbreaks of violent anti-social behavior.

Accessing education and employment is viewed as essential in the distancing and disengagement from violent and anti-social behavior and criminality among French Muslim youth.

Mosques can serve as a vector of counter-radicalization for young people who feel lost and in search of meaning and purpose in their life, rather than places of extremism.

But critical question remains as to the availability of adequate infrastructure as well as state support towards assisting leaders in shielding youth from radicalization and contributing to their integration within French society.

with their increasingly evolving and demanding role, the pressure is mounting on religious leadership to play a more proactive role of social containment.

The question of building mosques in France and other places in Europe is no longer limited to the vexed issue of visibility of Islam; nor does it relate to an assertion of a particular identity; rather it is about engendering social integration, civic engagement and active citizenship to ensure a peaceful and harmonious community.