Can post-religious France exist? Abd Al Malik, Frenchness and Islam

Abstract

This article explores the work of the writer, rapper and slam poet Abd Al Malik, who shook up the music world with his message of religious tolerance in the midst of the suburb riots in France in 2005 and the Charlie Hebdo attack in 2015. It shows how he builds on his religious conversions and revelations to pose challenging questions about Islam, its interpretations, and its relationship with French society. In his essays and novel, he challenges the readiness of France to accept Muslim culture in its national and cultural identity. In his last novel, he tells the story of a converted Muslim frontrunner in a national presidential election and his reception by the French population. Malik campaigns in favour of a post-religious France through his music and through his literary works. He dismantles the idea that Islam is a religion of people of colour and insists on its multi-ethnicity. His ideal post-religious France would be based on acceptability and inclusivity, love and universalism. Malik insists that Islam is not radicalism. According to him the Islamist message that he denounces is based on a narrow and ‘ignorant’ interpretation of Islam, which negates both modernity and the Western world. Malik, as a Sufi Muslim, suggests that Islam actually enables religious practices that embrace deep French values and promote the aspiration to ‘vivre ensemble’.