Integrating Islam: Political and Religious Challenges in Contemporary France / Edition 1

by Jonathan Laurence, Justin Vaisse

Overview

"Nearly five million Muslims call France home, the vast majority from former French colonies in North Africa. While France has successfully integrated waves of immigrants in the past, this new influx poses a new variety of challenges—much as it does in neighboring European countries. Alarmists view the growing role of Muslims in French society as a form of "reverse colonization"; they believe Muslim political and religious networks seek to undermine European rule of law or that fundamentalists are creating a society entirely separate from the mainstream. Integrating Islam portrays the more complex reality of integration's successes and failures in French politics and society. From intermarriage rates to economic indicators, the authors paint a comprehensive portrait of Muslims in France. Using original research, they devote special attention to the policies developed by successive French governments to encourage integration and discourage extremism. Because of the size of its Muslim population and its universalistic definition of citizenship, France is an especially good test case for the encounter of Islam and the West. Despite serious and sometimes spectacular problems, the authors see a "French Islam" slowly replacing "Islam in France"–in other words, the emergence of a religion and a culture that feels at home in, and is largely at peace with, its host society. Integrating Islam provides readers with a comprehensive view of the state of Muslim integration into French society that cannot be found anywhere else. It is essential reading for students of French politics and those studying the interaction of Islam and the West, as well as the general public.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815751519
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	08/07/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	364
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.97(h) x 0.86(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Laurence is an assistant professor of political science at Boston College and an affiliated scholar at the Center on the U.S. and Europe at the Brookings Institution. Justin Vaisse is a French historian, an adjunct professor at Sciences-Po (Paris) and an affiliated scholar at the Center on the U.S. and Europe at the Brookings Institution.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction

PART I: Being Muslim in France
1. The Steady Integration of France's Most Recent and Largest Minority
2. Patterns of Exclusion and Inclusion in French Society
3. From Religion to Identity: 1,001 Ways of Being Muslim
4. Islamic Organizations and Leaders in France

PART II: From Muslims into French Citizens: Muslims and Public Policy
5. Liberté, égalité...laïcité: Creation of the French Council of the Muslim Religion
6. Intolerance or Integration? The Ban on Religious Symbols in Public Schools
7. An Assessment of French Policy Responses

PART III: The Politics of Islam in France and Europe
8. The Pursuit of the Muslim Vote and Its Impact on Foreign Policy
9. Anti-Semitism among Muslims and the Rise of Communautarisme
10. The Threat of Terrorism and the French Response
11. Conclusion
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

" Integrating Islam is a must read for those who study Muslims in France. It contains very rich and updated data about Muslims' demography, organizational capacity, and political influence in France." —Ahmet T. Kuru, Contemporary Islam

"This is an important study for reasons that reach far beyond the borders of France." —David Ethan Corbin, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Fletcher Forum of World Affairs

" Everyone interested in immigration, European Islam, terrorism, or French politics should read [this] book." —Pavol Szalai, Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association, International Issues and Slovak Foreign Policy

"This is by far the most comprehensive and best documented book available in English on the Muslim population in France." —Alec G. Hargreaves, Florida State University, French Politics, Culture and Society

"Lawrence and Vaisse give an encyclopedic assessment of French policies toward the country's Muslim minority and the social, economic, and political facts of integration.... One imagines the book lying on the desks of graduate students and journalists who need a primer on the recent history and the facts. If so, we should all be happy." —Jytte Klausen, Brandeis University, Journal of Religion

From the Publisher

"This book is a must for many reasons. The authors illustrate how Muslims are being integrated into French society and how exclusion and marginality are pushing a few of them into radicalism and terrorism. In a single work it condenses the many sides of the 'Muslim question' within France and, in some ways, Europe overall."
—École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris

Farhad Khosrokhavar