L’émergence de l’islam “traditionnel” au sein du cyber espace francophone musulman

Abstract

The unexpected re-emergence of “traditional” islam in the European context in the past few years being initially a digital phenomenon, it seems to have escaped the analysis of researchers. In basing itself on two celebrated maghrebian ulemas : Muhammad al-Hasan Ould Ad-Dedew and Sa’îd al-Kamalî, this article seeks to fill that lacuna in showing how the offer of French-language, “madhhabic”, islamic discourse is nourished, structures itself and enters into debate on the Internet. This first involves describing the contexts of production of these two authorities on contemporary malikism on the net via their trans-national as well as their national anchorings. The analysis deals with the concrete methods of distribution through the action of “selection” and “translation” of digital video contents by link-actors on social networks, which allows us to identify the major characteristics of this discursive offer in close connection with the theme ‘ilm (religious knowledge) and its requirements. Lastly, through an observation of debates involving two Facebook groups devoted to the distribution of malikism in digital space, this article reveals the issues internal to the structuring of French-speaking madhhabism which cause tension between the various intra-islamic currents in competition and, above all, redraws their borders.

Keywords

• islam
• ulemas
• malikism
• Francophonie
• social networks
• ‘ilm