Can Islam Be French?

Abstract

John R. Bowen’s Can Islam Be French? is divided into three parts. The first part, which includes chapters 1 and 2, provides a brief overview of Islam in France and addresses issues of migration, the rise of religion, the response of the state, and the distinctive features of the French Islamic landscape. The second part consists of four chapters. Chapter 3 explores Islam in the suburbs, Islamic networks, and the work of an everyday imam, as well as mosques and social divisions. Chapter 4 examines the forces that shape Islamic knowledge in the countries; the various rules, schools, and principles used to interpret Islam; Hichem El Arafa’s Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Sur l’Islam, the science of prophetic traditions, and the objectives of Scripture. Chapter 5 differentiates among the various schools of jurisprudence in Islam, the differing pedagogical approaches employed in teaching the Muslim faith, the major influence of the Maliki madhhab in France, and the practical training of preachers and scholars. Chapter 6, which wonders whether Islamic schools can really be republican, examines the case of Dhaou Meskine’s Success School, how Muslim schools manage to teach a secular curriculum, Muslim family camp, and closes with coverage of Meskine’s arrest. Part 3 includes three chapters. Chapter 7 asks whether there should be an Islam for Europe and whether there should be different rules for different lands, ideological confrontations in mosques, and the transnational Islamic sphere. Chapter 8 deals with issues such as secular and religious marriages, halal and haram food rules, as well as the attitude of French civil law toward Islamic practices. Finally, chapter 9 tackles Islamic spheres in republican space, whether religion-based associations impede integration, priorities and values, as well as pragmatics of convergence ...