Lessons from France: popularist anxiety and veiled fears of Islam
Islam has become the second religion in a profoundly de-Christianized Europe that has seen its understanding of modern secularity harden. European countries have difficulties coming to terms with the presence of the large Muslim minorities who settled following post-war industrialization. France is...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic/Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge
[2011]
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| In: |
Islam and Christian-Muslim relations
Year: 2011, Volume: 22, Issue: 4, Pages: 475-489 |
| Further subjects: | B
Modernization
B burqa B Immigration B Neo-fundamentalism B France |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Islam has become the second religion in a profoundly de-Christianized Europe that has seen its understanding of modern secularity harden. European countries have difficulties coming to terms with the presence of the large Muslim minorities who settled following post-war industrialization. France is a particularly instructive case, as highlighted by the legislative ban it introduced in 2010 on the wearing of full Islamic veils in public spaces. A close study of the rejection by the highest administrative court of an application for French citizenship on the basis of the applicant's radical' practice of Islam reveals a profound incomprehension of the significance of the Muslim faith for new generations (and, more broadly, of the phenomenon of Islamic neo-fundamentalism worldwide). Radicalized expressions of faith have been interpreted as being by definition synonymous with hostility to liberal modernity and thus directly linked with Islamist terrorism. Yet Islam has in fact given a sector of society marginalized for primarily socioeconomic reasons a positive identity facilitating social integration. Islamophobia, fostered by incomprehension of the subjective meaning of contemporary Islamic faith, has gained ground in French political discourse, a phenomenon mirrored in other European societies. |
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| ISSN: | 0959-6410 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Islam and Christian-Muslim relations
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/09596410.2011.606194 |