Abstract
Discover the sociological reality of Islam in France through Jocelyne Cesari's groundbreaking book, "Being Muslim in France Today". This comprehensive study provides a nuanced understanding of Muslim practices, diversity, and experiences in France, shedding light on the often-misunderstood aspects of Islam. As part of a series exploring major religions in France, Cesari's work offers a unique anthropological and sociological perspective, analyzing the social links between Muslims and non-Muslims. Explore the intricacies of Muslim life in France, from birth to death, and gain insight into the complexities of religious identity in a secular society.
Extract
[...] Cesari's work by synthesizing it part by part. This seemed more relevant to us in order to detect 'the architecture' of the text and the author's argumentation in his intellectual development. In fact, the book begins with a long preface of nearly 30 pages where Bruno Etienne strives to explain the interest of his comparative series on the major religions in France and the impact on the members of these social groups. Intellectual project that he himself calls 'ambitious on the ethical level but little theoretical and certainly not theological' (Etienne, 1997: 14) but also to recall the major principles that govern the cult of religions in France in terms of legislation and the sociological reality of Islam in France, indicating in passing the importance of the scientific teams that found this intellectual project. [...]
[...] It is this importance that is recalled by the origin of the project in its preface, namely the French anthropologist, Bruno Etienne, specialist in the religious fact and more particularly in Islam. According to the latter, 'in this series, we will not address the fundamental theological problems, but we will focus on the real, concrete practices of believers beyond the great orthodox debates'4 » (Etienne, 1997: 12). Thus, this state of the art of the sociology of the religious fact in France remains, epistemologically speaking, an important project in the social sciences. [...]
[...] From then on, it would deserve to be updated or completely reviewed in order to integrate the last decade rich in social phenomena. Despite this main pitfall, the strength of this work lies in the fact that there is a genuine didactic ambition behind Bruno Etienne's editorial project. In fact, the bibliography and especially the rich annexes come to complement the author's proposal usefully. In fact, whether it is the reminder of the chronology, the different currents of Islam such as Sufism, or by quoting the Quran, without forgetting the different titles that found the representative council of Muslims in France, the author genuinely wants to be complete on the subject in order to 'counterbalance', one might say, the choice to focus on understanding French Islam as of 1997. [...]
[...] Then, in the penultimate part of the book, Jocelyne Cesari proposes to understand the great specifics mentioned in her first part in a sociological and anthropological way. In fact, she takes up the profession of faith of Islam, namely the five pillars of Islam, to re-examine them in the French context. Thus, whether it is the Zakat, that is to say the legal alms to the poorest, or the prayer (she describes how prayers are sometimes performed in "wealthy" mosques, page 138), it remains at the heart of a Muslim's life." Finally, the last sub-part, the author proposes to appreciate the true practices that sometimes compartmentalize Islam in French society, such as the separation of the sexes (p.156) or the Islamic veil and headscarf (p.157 to 159). [...]
[...] Being Muslim in France today - Jocelyne Cesari (1997) Subject : The book: Being Muslim in France today, Jocelyne Cesari I. Introduction Presentation of the author: Jocelyne Cesari is a French sociology professor but above all a specialist in Islam in the West. In this sense, she is a researcher at the GSRL (Sociology of Religions and Secularity Group) and a member of the CNRS. She holds the chair of religion and politics at the University of Birmingham, in England. [...]
