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    Muslims in France: The Way towards Coexistence
    Muslims in France: The Way towards Coexistence
    Muslims in France: The Way towards Coexistence
    Ebook72 pages2 hours

    Muslims in France: The Way towards Coexistence

    By Tariq Ramadan

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    About this ebook

    This book analyses the Muslim presence in France. In Part I, historical and judicial perspectives are examined. Part II deals with the internal dynamics of the Muslim community. The study suggests that whilst Muslims must acknowledge the implications of their presence in French society it is also necessary that French society examines its past colonial prejudices towards Islam.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKube Publishing Ltd
    Release dateJan 31, 2018
    ISBN9780860376941
    Muslims in France: The Way towards Coexistence
    Author

    Tariq Ramadan

    Dr Tariq Ramadan is Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University, teaching in two Faculties of Oriental Studies and Theology & Religion. He is Senior Research Fellow at St Antony’s College (Oxford) and Doshisha University (Kyoto, Japan); Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Islamic Studies, (Qatar); Director of the Research Centre of Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE) (Doha, Qatar), President of the think tank European Muslim Network (EMN) in Brussels and a member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars. He holds an MA in Philosophy and French literature and PhD in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Geneva. In Cairo, Egypt he received one-on-one intensive training in classic Islamic scholarship from Al-Azhar University scholars (ijazat teaching license in seven disciplines). Through his writings and lectures Tariq has contributed to the debate on the issues of Muslims in the West and Islamic revival in the Muslim world. His research interests include the issues of Islamic legislation, politics, ethics, Sufism and the Islamic contemporary challenges in both the Muslim-majority countries and the West. He is active at both academic and grassroots levels. He was named by TIME Magazine as one of the one hundred innovators of the twenty-first century.

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      Book preview

      Muslims in France - Tariq Ramadan

      Muslims in France

      The Way Towards Coexistence

      TARIQ RAMADAN

      The Islamic Foundation

      Published by

      The Islamic Foundation, Markfield Conference Centre,

      Ratby Lane, Markfield, Leicester LE67 9SY, United Kingdom

      Tel: (01530) 244944, Fax: (01530) 244946

      E-mail: i.foundation@islamic-foundation.org.uk

      Web site: http://www.islamic-foundation.org.uk/islamfound

      Quran House, PO Box 30611, Nairobi, Kenya

      PMB 3193, Kano, Nigeria

      Copyright © The Islamic Foundation, 1999/1420 H

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

      ISBN 0 86037 299 5 (PB)

      Contents

      Preface

      Introduction

      PART I: The Present Situation

      A. Historical Elements

      B. What Does the Law Say?

      C. Concrete Corollaries

      D. Three Patterns

      PART II: The Way Forward

      A. A Question of Representation

      B. Within the Muslim Community

      Conclusion

      Appendix

      Bibliography

      Index

      Preface

      The Muslim presence in France dates back to the Middle Ages, during the time of the Andalusian epoch. Muslims lived then mostly in the south of the country, particularly in Avignon. Decades elapsed before the arrival of new waves of Muslims at the beginning of the 20th century, between the two World Wars, and particularly after 1945. The latter arrived in their tens of thousands, chiefly from Algeria but also from Morocco and Tunisia, to work mainly in factories and on building sites. France, in full social and economic reconstruction after a devastating war, needed labourers. The immigration policy, until the 1960s, was somewhat chaotic and the agreements made with the governments of the South (such as Algeria in 1964) were not strictly applied. During almost two decades the waves of immigration did not cease and this has produced an exponential increase of North African immigrants: from 48,000 in 1964 the Algerians numbered 160,000 in 1973; in the same period the number of Moroccans increased from 50,000 to 400,000.¹ It was not until the 1970s, during the economic crisis, that the French government started toughening its immigration policy, bringing in strict laws regarding entry to French territories. A policy of repatriation was even elaborated in 1977: immigrants were offered subsidies to help them to return to Algeria, Morocco or Tunisia. However, this enterprise met with little success and the number of immigrants, though in a less dramatic fashion, kept increasing, mainly owing to two reasons. This was due, on the one hand, to familial regrouping with the arrival in France of the workers’ wives and children; and on the other hand, to clandestine immigration, which increased upon the application of the more restrictive immigration laws. In the 1980s the situation stabilised a little, and by the end of that decade it became clear that the second, and with it the third and fourth, generations had taken root, and that for the great majority of them, France had become their country.

      The number of Muslims in France has been the object of the most diverse estimations. If their presence is evaluated at around 3 million by official census, other statistics suggest 4 and, very often, 5 million. Evaluations vary, but it is reasonable to consider that a figure of 4 million has been reached and, without much doubt, slightly exceeded. Half of the Muslims living in France hold, therefore, French nationality and this, very explicitly, makes Islam a reality within the French landscape. It is now the second largest religion in France.

      Despite the objective nature of these facts, many intellectuals and social and political players continue to think of and present Islam as an exogenous fact that is closely linked to immigration, and particularly to clandestine immigration. This is either a question of a poor knowledge of reality or, more strategically, of a discourse entertained for electoral ends in an epoch that sees racism and xenophobia once again on the increase. Nonetheless, even if, in certain respects, the problems are linked, it is clear today that the question of Islam in France has nothing to do with the inextricable difficulties of unemployment or immigration.

      The extreme right party of Jean-Marie le Pen entertains the fear of an Arab-Muslim invasion and the loss of French identity by nourishing a discourse that is intentionally confusing regarding foreigners, unemployment, clandestine immigration and Islam. The first Muslims arrived in France in a

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