Islamism, Islamic Reformism and the Public Stigmatization of Muslims: A Study of Muslim Discourses in France

Abstract

The encounter of Muslim immigrant communities and 'secular' European s cieti s has been interpreted in very different ways.1 B fore the backdrop of powerful voices claiming the discordance of the Muslim presence in Europe, one trend in recent scholarship has insisted that processes of individualization have been taking place inside Muslim communities (for an overview and discus sion of the literature see Tezcan 2003 and Peter 2006a). These studies have in sisted on the believer's agency vis-a-vis the religious tradition and pointed to the parallels between Muslim and Christian developments with regard to religious individualization, these developments being identified sometimes as contribut ing to the secularization of European Islam (Cesari 2004, Saint Blancat 2004, Tietze 2001). Its important results notwithstanding, this line of reasoning is not entirely satisfying. Pursuing the critical objections made by other scholars (Amir Moazami/Salvatore 2003), this article will argue that the discursive externaliza tion of 'immigrants' in France and the interrelated debates on the compatibility of Islam with the Republic constitute a counter-force to individualization and, more specifically, heighten the appeal of a specific Islamic discourse which will be defined here ideal-typically as 'Islamic reformism'. It will be suggested that the discourses circulating inside the Union of Is lamic Organizations in France (UOIF),2 an organization usually depicted as be longing to the 'moderate' Islamist trend (see for example Kepel 1991 and 220 03), should be understood, to different degrees, as attempts to counter the public stigmatization of Muslims in France. This article will examine how this attempt affects the Union's articulation of an all-encompassing vision of Islam,