Abstract
T his article makes a first attempt to analyze structures of authority in French Islam by drawing on Bourdieu’s field concept. After a short discussion of current research on Islamic authority in France, I will in the second section address the reorientation of French state policies and the intergenerational changes that have led to an external reconfiguration of the Muslim field in France. The third and fourth parts of this article will be devoted to studying responses by different, mainly Franco-Maghrebi, Muslim actors to this reconfiguration of the field. The focus will be on those Muslim groups that develop specifically French readings of Islam and aim to reshape the French Muslim community as the Qur ’ anic “community of the middle way,” as opposed to variously defined groups with radical tendencies. The different types of relations between authorities and French-born Muslims and the mosque as a site of authority will be the particular focus.
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