Jonathan Lawrence and Justin Vaisse, Integrating Islam: political and religious challenges in contemporary France

Abstract

The growing Muslim population in Europe has increasingly attracted social scientists’ attention. Jonathan Laurence and Justin Vaisse’s Integrating Islam is a very successful example of books recently written on this issue. As is clear from its publisher, Integrating Islam is primarily a policy study. Although the book does not include an explicit discussion of social science theories, it still has an implicit theoretical background. It mainly refutes essentialism. Essentialism, which takes Islam as a monolithic entity comprised by certain essences that challenge Western values, became popular among certain analysts who have tried to explain terrorism. In his excellent Foreword to Integrating Islam, Olivier Roy summarizes the antiessentialist theoretical stand of the book: ‘In Europe, Islamic fundamentalism is usually the product of a process of alienation and deculturation rather than the ultimate expression of Islamic culture....This noteworthy book...refuses to engage in the often fruitless debate on Islam as an abstract concept. The authors rely on solid documentation to study actual Muslims who live in France (p. xiv-xv)’. Integrating Islam explores both the Muslims’ attitudes in France and the French state’s response to this relatively new public actor, while revealing the interaction between these two. According to Laurence and Vaisse, Islam is only one aspect of the multiculturalist challenge that the French Republic has witnessed. Not only Muslims, but also followers of other religions have certain problems in France due to the French Republic’s ‘sensitivities regarding the presence of religion in the public sphere’ and its goal to ‘“privatize” religious affiliation’ (p. 10). Due to the Cont Islam DOI 10.1007/s11562-007-0036-5