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2017.03.008. BORIS DOLGOV. ISLAM IN FRANCE: MUSLIMS AND SECULAR REPUBLIC // "VOSTOK - ORIENS" Moscow, 2015. № 4, P. 123-133.
Keywords: Islam, Muslims, France, secular republic, democracy, civilization identity, integration, extremism, fundamentalism, Islam-phobia.
Boris Dolgov,
PhD (Hist.), senior research assistant, Arabic and Islamic research Centre, Institute of Oriental Studies, RAS
The Muslim community in France has existed in the conditions of secular democracy, notes the author. France is the only country of the European Union, which proclaims secularism as official state ideology. At present relations between the state and religion are based on and regulated by the law of the separation of the church from the state adopted in 1905. This law guarantees freedom of conscience, and the state does not render material support to any confession. President Francois Holland during his visit to Tunisia in July 2013 said that Islam did not contradict democratic values, which is confirmed by France's experience.
Secular ideology formed in France within the framework of the confrontation between the republican state and Catholic Church, which soon after the French revolution of 1789 took rather harsh forms. Subsequently, the emergence of the concept of Christian democracy in the 1980s brought the positions of the two sides closer. At the same time the Church was striving to win more points of contact with the non-Catholic part of society for promotion of "Christian European culture". This was confirmed by the proposal voiced by Pope John Paul II in 1984 to include a passage about Christian culture in the preamble of the text of the European Constitution. However, in the 2000s the problem of
Islam and its relations with "French identity", one of the main components of which is secularism, greatly exacerbated.
The Arab-Muslim community in France is the biggest in the European Union. This is explained by a complex history of relations between France and North African countries - former French colonies. According to various data, there are from five to six million Muslims living in France (by 2014 the population of France was close to 66.2 million), and about 82 percent of it is of North African origin. Part of French Muslims has adapted itself to European culture and way of life and integrated in French society, but many of them still preserve traditional beliefs and culture.
In the 1980s young immigrants from North Africa began to fight for their recognition as full-fledged members of French society. They were striving to receive European education and demanded the opening of radio and TV broadcasting in Arabic and Berber, etc. In the early 1980s, various associations set up by immigrants organized demonstrations and protest marches against the attitude of the French authorities to North Africans as "second-rate citizens".
The traces of the Algerian war, which gave rise to mistrust and hostility toward Muslims in French society, as well as evident differences in the way of life, culture and traditions of the French indigenous people and the immigrants were a serious obstacle on the way to their integration in the new society.
Many North Africans believed that an emphasis of Islamic identity would, first, express their protest against discrimination, and, secondly, would give them an opportunity to acquire full-fledged citizenship. From the latter half of the 1980s the supporters of this view began to organize conferences, in which Muslim associations took an active part, build mosques, and openly observe Muslims customs and habits, including wearing Muslim dress, head kerchiefs and yashmac for women. One of the first most influential Muslim organizations was the Union of Young Muslims founded in Lion in 1987, whose leaders
demanded that the French authorities recognize the right of Muslims to openly demonstrate their adherence to Islam and publicly mark their religious feasts. The Union published its own journal "Tauhid" (dogmat of Allah as the only God and recognition of His divine nature) on the basis of the Muslim cultural association of the same name created in 1986. The journal contained materials of conferences and works by outstanding Islamic ideologists.
During that period the Muslim communities formed in a number of French cities, including Lion and Marseilles, began to demand permissions to build big cathedral mosques. These projects met with opposition on the part of many citizens of these cities who maintained that such buildings were incompatible with the historically shaped architectural ensembles.. Street prayers with a big number of believers during Muslim feats also evoked great discontent.
In 1989, more attention to the spreading of Islam in the country was caused by wearing kerchiefs and yashmac by Muslim girl-students. Meanwhile, they did not identify "genuine Islam" in France with that practiced in North African countries where their parents had come from, which they regarded as "too traditional and problematic". Representatives of the younger generation, these Muslim girls born in France with French citizenship, whose main language was French, were striving, nevertheless, to retain their Muslim identity. They attended courses to study Islam and Arabic, attended lectures and sermons of Muslim preachers, including those from Arab Islamic universities. Many students took part in annual mass Muslim conferences in Paris suburb Le Bourget at which well-known Islamic ideologists spoke.
Teaching and Islamic educational centers in France in the 1980s differed from those in Muslim countries. Teaching in the "new Motherland" was in the French language, teachers and preachers represented different theological schools, and this was
why the studies took into account the global Islamic discourse and French realities.
Islamic educational centers in France included private schools and courses attached to mosques and various Islamic associations. The teachers were mainly young Muslim intellectuals, including imams who had received education in Arab countries. The heads of Islamic educational institutions took part in Muslim conferences and public debates in the mass media. The imams of the two biggest cathedral mosques in Paris and Lion, who had the title of rectors, took part regularly in various functions and appeared in the mass media remaining loyal to the French authorities. However, certain young French imams have accepted Salaphite ideas popular in the Muslim diaspora.
The socio-cultural progress of the Muslim community was accompanied with the emergence of several trends of the perception and practices of Islam. The most widespread is classical Sunna Islam. It is preached by the imams and theologians of the Grand Paris Mosque founded in 1922, which is one of the most popular mosques in Europe. The imam and rector of it is Dalil Boubakeur, who has close ties with the Algerian diaspora, Algerian Embassy and the authorities of that country.
In 1985 the National Federation of Muslims of France was organized, which has close contacts with the Moroccan and Turkish communities. In 1986, on the initiative of Muslim religious leaders of the fundamentalist trend the Union of Islamic Organizations of France was formed, which arranges annual symposiums in the Paris "Le Bourget" suburb at which problems connected with the life of the Muslim community and various theological subjects are discussed.
In 2011 a group of Muslim figures set up the Union of Muslim Associations headed by Hassen Farsadou, a former member of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France. At present it is spreading its influence in Paris suburbs where it has nine mosques, including the biggest one them in Saint-Denis.
In the early 2000s the Muslim activists in Strasbourg organized the Party of Muslims of France. As Boris Dolgov notes, the law regulating the relations of the state with religious organizations and banning the creation of parties on religious foundation was adopted in France in 1905. At that time Strasbourg was part of Germany, and there was no such law at the time. In its program the party advocates recognition of religious organizations, including Muslim ones, as social partners and implementation of the strategy of community ties, which presupposes creating original zone-communes based on the Sharia law in the districts of compact habitation of Muslims.. This party is the only example of a political party based on Islam in Europe. It is small, has no practical influence and remains virtually underground.
In 2003 on the initiative of the Minister of the Interior of France Jean-Pierre Chevenement, the French Council of Muslim Cult was set up. In the idea of its creators, the Council had to represent a greater part of the French Muslim community. The French authorities would then be able to maintain closer and more effective contacts with diasporas. In June 2013 the well-known Muslim religious and public figure Muhammed Moussaoui was elected President of the Council.
A new and original phenomenon in the religious practice of French Muslims is individual Islam. It is mainly practiced by Muslim intellectuals and part of the younger generation. They consider religious beliefs a private matter, in which their position coincides with the general attitude to religion in French society.
In 2003 the Movement of Secular Muslims came into being in France whose participants adhere to republican and democratic principles. Its well-known representative is Fadela Amara, a member of the French socialist party and active participant in the women's movement coming out against wearing yashmac. Participants in this movement regard their Muslim identity primarily as cultural and not connected with religious dogmas. However, this movement is not a mass
phenomenon and reflects the mood of a minority of the representatives of the Muslim community of France.
Along with these movements in the ranks of the French Muslim community there is a growing number of adherents to neo-fundamentalism. This trend is characterized by non-admission of European values and refusal to integrate in French society. Their leaders support the idea of closer commune ties. In France there are supporters of radical Islamism trying to open mosques or prayer houses under the guidance of self-proclaimed imams. This trend whose supporters are few and far between has unofficially been named "Islam of suburbs and garages".
At the same time 80 percent of French Muslims are "non-practicing believers" and only 20 percent scrupulously fulfill all precepts of Islam. About five percent are orthodox fundamentalists - Salaphites and followers of the Tablig movement rejecting European values, striving to fence off from "Godless society" and live by the Sharia law. Isolation from economic and social life, a high unemployment level among these people, especially young ones, their partial marginalization contribute to the growing influence of jihadist ideology. About a thousand adherents of jihad are members of clandestine and semi-underground Islamist organizations.
Most problems connected with the Muslim diaspora bear a socio-economic rather than inter-confessional or inter-civilization character and touches on unemployment, education, and social position. The mass dismissals from work in the 1990s - 2000s in the automobile industry, whose workforce was by 50 percent represented by migrants from Algeria and Tunisia, have contributed to a great rise in the number of the unemployed. One of the reasons for job losses was the withdrawal of industrial enterprises from France to countries with a cheap workforce. Unemployment and failure to find one's own niche in society provoke Muslim young people to social protest, which often takes aggressive forms and is ably used by radical Islamists in their interests. For several years already in the suburbs of big
French cities clashes with the police, burning of cars, shattering of shop windows, and other lawless actions have been taking place from time to time, in which mostly young people from North African and Asian countries participate.
The problem of drug trafficking and addiction is still pressing and does not seem to diminish. It is precisely in the suburbs where drugs are widespread that semi-illegal Islamists organizations are acting and radial Islamism and jihadism are widely popular.
At present in France just as in many other countries of the European Union the growing influence and spreading of Islam is observed, both in religious and socio-political spheres. This is manifested, among other things, in putting forward by Muslim communities of their candidates at municipal and parliamentary elections, their increasing membership in public and human rights organizations, as well as the growing Muslim influence on public thinking in France. In 2012, for the first time in the country's history, about 400 French citizens representing the Arab-Muslim diaspora, were among candidates to parliament, and ten of them were elected.
Representatives of French Muslims are actively working at the National Consultative Committee on human rights protecting religious rights of immigrants. The Union of Muslim Organizations in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis inhabited by about 450,000 Muslims, regularly publishes on its Internet-site various materials describing the life of the Muslim community, municipal election campaigns, as well as critical remarks concerning the authorities, who allegedly encourage Islam-phobia and racism. Such activity can hardly be viewed as one aimed at integration in French society. It rather reflects the desire of a considerable part of the Muslim community to preserve its Islamic values, traditions and religion.
The growing number of Muslims and greater activity of the Muslim diaspora in France causes different reaction of the indigenous population of the country. Part of French citizens, the
political establishment and scientific circles accepts the position of this category of Muslims. For them Islam becomes a component part of the French socio-political and cultural spheres. In turn, part of the French community of Oriental scholars shows interest in Oriental metaphysics and Islamic esoteric theories. The well-known French philosopher and ideologist of individual Islam Abdennour Bidar made a report on the subject at a conference held at the Higher School of Social Sciences in May 2014.
At the same time the thesis of the acculturation of Islam is put forward, that is, a possibility for a Muslim to reveal his identity from the position of Muslim culture rather than from the position of religion. Debates on this problems are going on in the French Muslim community, just as in the Muslim world. Debates on this problem are going on in the French Muslim community, just as in the Muslim world in general. However, at the present moment most Muslims, including the Sunna ideologist Yusuf al-Qaradawi, do not agree with this thesis. Arguments are still going on concerning French national identity and the role of Islam in it. Part of the political establishment and Oriental scholars, Gilles Kepel (a well-known French scholar of Islam) one of them, are worried over the growing influence of Islam and indifferent attitude to this problem by secular republican France. A reflection of these worries can be seen in the adoption of the rules banning manifestation of religious affiliation (wearing kerchiefs and yashmac by Muslim women and girls) in public places.
The foreign Islamists movements have a strong influence on the French Muslim diaspora. For example, the sponsors of the creation of the influential Muslim socio-political organization -the Union of Islamic Organizations of France in the 1980s were the followers of the Tunisian Islamic party "Nahda" ("Revival") and the Egyptian Islamist organization "Muslim Brotherhood". In 2012 the Tunisian sheikh Ahmed Jaballah , Muslim ideologist and preacher adhering to "Nahda" and "Muslim Brotherhood" was elected its Chairman. The "Muslim Brotherhood" in France
actively cooperates with the Turkish Islamist organization "National Vision", which took part in the creation of the National Federation of Muslims of France.
A factor exerting an influence on both the French Muslim diaspora and the country's domestic and foreign policy is the character of its economic relations with Islamic countries, for instance, Qatar. This emirate, which is part of the regional organization of the Council of cooperation of the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, has become one of the most privileged financial-economic partners of France in the years of the rule of Emir Hamad bin Khalifa at Thani. Qatar investments in France exceed $100 billion. In 2012 alone they reached $30 billion. The new field of Qatar investments is the social sphere - the development of French suburbs where the biggest part of the Arab-Muslim diaspora lives.
At the same time, part of the French political establishment, particularly, the leader of the Popular Front, Marine Le Pen, regard the present situation as the "Qatarization" of France, maintaining that the financial-economic support of French suburbs by Qatar has an aim "to promote Muslim fundamentalism to the heart of France". Nevertheless, cooperation between France and Qatar continued under new leaders - President Francois Hollande and Emir Tamim.
Meanwhile, in 2013-2014 the growing anti-Islamic sentiments and acts of aggression against Muslims were registered in France, which was confirmed by human-rights organizations. These manifestations of Islam-phobia could be explained by the continuing illegal immigration of Muslims, among whom were criminal elements, drug traffickers and radical Islamists. A considerable increase of immigration is connected with the negative consequences of the "Arab spring". Anti-Islamic sentiments are also caused by such tragic phenomena as the case of the "Toulouse shooter" - a French citizen of Algerian origin connected with "Al Qaeda", who shot and killed six people in Toulouse in 2013. Frenchmen are also worried by the fact that
quite a few French citizens leave for Syria to take part in the "jihad" against the ruling regime there. If they return to France, they may create a certain threat to public security. This is confirmed by a whole number of terrorist acts perpetrated by people who gained a bloody "jihadist experience" in the ranks of the ISIL fighters. The most terrible events were the attack on the "Charlie Hebdo" magazine, which published cartoons of Prophet Mohammed, and the capture of hostages in one of the shops in Paris (7.01 - 9.01.2015) in which 17 people were killed and eight wounded. The attack was carried out by three radical Islamists who had been trained in one of the "Al Qaeda" camps.
The French mass media, just as society as a whole, started public discussions after the terrorist acts in Paris in January 2015 concerning the need to reform Muslim organizations in France, particularly, the French Council of Muslim Cult. The French political establishment initiated a dialogue with Muslims after the terrorist acts in January 2015, which presupposed participation in it of various Muslims associations and well-known Muslim figures and clerics. The dialogue was aimed at stepping up the activity of a new generation of authoritative leaders capable to influence the situation in the Muslim ummah. The President of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France Amar Lasfar, considering a possible reforming of Muslim organizations, spoke in favor of creating a theological structure, which could take the form of a "council of ulama", which could issue Fatwas (religious messages) within the framework of the law of 1905, regulating relations between the state and religion. Certain political figures joined the discussion on the problems of Islam in France. One of the leaders of the party "Union for Popular Movement" Alain Juppe, the Mayor of Bordeaux, conducted negotiations with the Union of Muslim organizations at which he suggested to its leadership to work out proposals for reforming the French Council of Muslim Cult.
A great part of the Muslim community in France continues to preserve its Islamic identity adhering to traditional moderate
Islam. This is largely due to France's policy to grant each citizen real freedom of conscience. However, Muslim migrants have been unable to integrate fully in French society, even those who were born in France and had French citizenship. On the one hand, radicalization of part of Muslim young people is taking place, which leads to growing extremism, which, in turn, provokes greater Islam-phobia. On the other hand, a process can be observed of Islam becoming closer to French culture. This is certainly connected with the weakening of the Christian Church in Europe, France included, as well as with the formation of religious pluralism and the growing role of Islam. Nevertheless, far from all Frenchmen accept these realities, which conditions a definite dissociation in French society, Boris Dolgov concludes.
Author of the abstract - Valentina Schensnovich
