The role of ‘European Islam’ in motivating Muslim women’s political participation in France

Abstract

Against the background of an allegedly ever-growing disconnect between France and some of her Muslim communities, particularly apparent in the atrocities carried out in Paris in 2015, this article begins by offering an insight into the largely theorised academic notion of ‘European Islam’ and speculates about the extent to which it may contribute to motivating Muslim women’s political participation in France. The article draws on findings from interviews conducted with women who self-identify as Muslim and participate in both formal and informal politics in France, to examine the effects of ‘European Islam’ on their political motivations. It reveals the influence of French contextual specificities on the way in which the Muslim women interviewed articulate their understanding of ‘European Islam’ and continues by offering an explanation of how Muslim women negotiate religion and political participation in France, and their implications for French society today.

Education, secularism, and illiberalism: Marginalisation of Muslims by the French state

“…In France, Muslims represent this 'sacrificial stranger' who are seen as needing assimilation to comply with a standard norm of Frenchness deriving from national parochialisms that presume Europeans to be White Christians (Goldberg, 2006). Literature has demonstrated that this assimilationist paradigm has a tendency to homogenise Muslim populations -despite their ethnic, racial, and cultural diversity -as a singular outsider who needs to continually assimilate (Allen, 2010;Easat-Daas, 2017;Roy, 2005;Salih, 2004;Vanparys et al, 2013), in a process that Grillo (2004) refers to as 'transethnicization', where Muslims from diverse backgrounds are amalgamated into a singular musulman français community.…”

“…It has been further documented how Islam operates as a racialised identity inscribed on Muslims' bodies through the hegemonic banning of headscarves (Davidson, 2012;Hancock, 2015;Hancock and Mobillion, 2019;Limage, 2000;Rootham, 2015), an institution which Secor (2002) refers to as 'regimes of veiling'. Furthermore, research demonstrates that the veil plays a symbolic role in individual-state and community-state dynamics over laïcité's role in sociopolitical power distribution, the politics of identification, and the politics of embodiment (Adam-Troian et al, 2019;Adrian, 2009;Easat-Daas, 2017;Jansen, 2006;Selby, 2011;Werbner, 2007).…”

Islamic religious behaviors and civic engagement in Europe and North America

“…Others examine the role of Islamic organizations and mosques in promoting participation (Jamal, 2005a;Ayers and Hofstetter, 2008;Bagby, 2009;Dana et al, 2011;Fleischmann et al, 2016;Oskooii and Dana, 2017;Westfall, 2018), or document the mobilizing effect of Islamophobia (Munawar et al, 2005;O'Loughlin and Gillespie, 2012;Martin, 2017;Peucker, 2019Peucker, , 2021. Some scholars highlight the political activity of Muslim women, who have become symbols of the tension between Islamic and Western values, and discover that Muslim women are empowered and engaged as democratic citizens (Read, 2015;Easat-Daas, 2017;Welborne et al, 2018). The comprehensive literature demonstrates the ways Muslims engage in their communities through electoral participation, associational involvement, protest, volunteerism, and by holding political attitudes that support participation, such as political trust, feelings of belonging, and national identity.…”