https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0172-0769
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ABSTRACT
Anti-Muslim hostility in Europe operates in a variety of forms and settings. While a rich body of work has highlighted the multifaceted stigmatization of Islam in European societies, little is known on how Muslims respond to it. Based on an ethnographic case study of a group of French Muslim activists, this article describes how they explain, rebut and cope with anti-Muslim hostility. Drawing on sociological research on antiracist practices, the article expands understandings of non-confrontational strategies designed to dispel prejudices gradually and educate racist people tactfully. More precisely, the French Muslim activists I interviewed urge their coreligionists to display good manners and exemplary behaviour in response to stigmatization, mobilizing a middle-class set of values encompassing politeness, discretion, socio-economic uplift and self-discipline. In doing so, these activists offer oppositional space to anti-Muslim hostility but also reinforce some of the hegemonic values of colour-blind French republicanism.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Élodie Druez, Angéline Escafré-Dublet, Virginie Guiraudon, Julien Talpin and the three anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of this article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The Union des organisations islamiques de France (UOIF) was founded in 1983 by pious Muslim students with sympathies for the Muslim Brotherhood. The organization progressively evolved into a grassroots movement, with some sixty affiliated associations scattered around France providing community services to worshippers and religious guidance on the compatibility between the Islamic faith and the French environment. The organization was renamed Musulmans de France in 2017, although I use the name UOIF in the rest of the article for clarity purposes. For some socio-historical insights, see Dazey Citation2018.
2 In terms of national origins, out of 42 interviewees, 12 were born in Morocco, 8 in Tunisia, 5 in Algeria, 3 in Lebanon, 1 in Egypt, 1 in Mauritania, 1 in Niger, and 10 in France. Nine were between 20–34 years old at the time of the interview; 15 between 35–49 years old; and 18 between 50–64 years old. I interviewed only two female members of the UOIF. While UOIF membership is largely male-dominated, this gender imbalance is even more pronounced regarding people in leadership position, who were my principal interlocutors. For instance, in the UOIF committee meeting I attended, there were three female participants and 30 male participants. In contrast with formal interviews, which were mostly conducted with men, ethnographic observations were mostly gathered in female-dominated environments, such as the female section of mosques or amongst female students in classes.
3 Official statutes of the UOIF, 2017.
4 In the aftermath of the 2015 terror attacks in Paris (in January with the Charlie Hebdo shooting and in November with coordinated attacks across the city) and the 2016 truck attack in Nice, French Muslims in general and UOIF activists in particular were subjected to increased public scrutiny. In the case of the UOIF, the growth of autobiographical accounts by reformed activists, a smear poster campaign equating the UOIF with terrorism as well as frequent condemnations of the organization by politicians precipitated a moral panic surrounding the organization’s alleged fundamentalism. Political and media scrutiny peaked during the 2017 presidential campaign, which witnessed the intensification of calls for the organization’s dissolution.
5 See the summary of the event published on the UOIF website https://www.musulmansdefrance.fr/2eme-journee-internationale-contre-lislamophobie/, accessed 30 November, 2020. The International Day of Islamophobia is a public event gathering anti-racist activists and scholars to discuss the best means of action against anti-Muslim hostility.
6 All names of interviewees have been changed to protect anonymity, except when quoting participants in public events (or publications) in which they participated under their name.
7 Transcription based on my fieldwork notes, Le Bourget, May 2016.
8 Transcription based on my fieldwork notes, Bordeaux, November 2018.
9 For instance, Tareq Oubrou quoted in Sud-Ouest, 8 April 1996: “To the question ‘why is the French State oppressing us?’, the imam replied that it was ‘the normal reaction of a society that has to do with a new component that poses a problem to the definition of secularism’”.
10 Interview with Mohamed, La Courneuve, September 2016.
11 Interview with Mohamed, La Courneuve, September 2016.
12 See for intance Oubrou’s interview in Sud-Ouest, 30 May 2019.
13 Fouad Alaoui quoted in La Lettre de l’UOIF n°4, October 2010, p. 5.
14 Les cahiers de l’éducation (UOIF), March 2012.
15 Mamadou quoted in Le Monde, 3 April 2012.
16 Transcription based on my fieldwork notes, Lille, February 2016.
17 Interview with Imad, Saint-Denis, December 2015.
18 Transcription based on my fieldwork notes, Bordeaux, October 2015.
19 See, for instance, Oubrou’s interview in Le Monde, 4 December 2009 in which he asserts that “Racism is not new, but personally I don’t see the Islamophobia which is presented as a plague of our society. I don’t accept this position of victimhood and this consumerist posture towards rights.” Not being seen as a victim is also a concern for anti-Islamophobia initiatives in the Netherlands (Koning Citation2016).
20 Les cahiers de l’éducation (UOIF), March 2012.
21 http://www.havredesavoir.fr/reactions-au-sujet-du-film-polemique-entre-raison-et-emotion/, accessed 22 June, 2019.
22 http://www.musulmansdefrance.fr/appel-coeur-toi-soeur/, accessed 22 June, 2019.