Includes bibliographical references (pages 103-115) and index.
Introduction: laïcité and the identity of France -- French laïcité and Islam: which is the exception? -- Islam and secularization -- The crisis of the secular state and the new forms of religiosity -- De facto secularization.
"The denunciation of fundamentalism in France, embodied in the law against the veil and the deportation of imams, has shifted into a systematic attack on all Muslims and Islam. This hostility is rooted in the belief that Islam cannot be integrated into French - and, consequently, secular and liberal - society. However, as Olivier Roy makes clear in this book, Muslim intellectuals have made it possible for Muslims to live concretely in a secularized world while maintaining their identities as "true believers." They have formulated a language that recognizes two spaces: that of religion and that of secular society." "Roy's rare portrait of the realities of immigrant Muslim life offers a necessary alternative to the popular specter of an "Islamic threat." Supporting his arguments with his extensive research on Islamic history, sociology, and politics, Roy demonstrates the limits of our understanding of contemporary Islamic religious practice in the West and the role of Islam as a. Screen onto which Western societies project their own identity crisis."--Jacket.
Translated from the French.
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22573/cttgs0z1 JSTOR 7EA78CCA-14CF-4B85-B729-D7E291FEFB23 OverDrive, Inc. http://www.overdrive.com
Islam--France. Islam and secularism--France. Islam and state--France. Laicism--France. Fundamentalism--France. POLITICAL SCIENCE--International Relations--General. POLITICAL SCIENCE--Political Process--Political Advocacy. Fundamentalism. Islam. Islam and secularism. Islam and state. Laicism.