Overview
- Eschews essentialist and orientalist analyses of French Muslims
- Sheds light on previously under-examine areas such as activist work, social movements, political and media representations of Muslims in France
- Puts French Muslims into comparative perspective, integrating them into the broader discussions of race, class, multiculturalism, gender and social movement theory from across Europe and the USA
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About this book
With the largest Muslim population in Western Europe, France has faced a number of critiques in its attempts to assimilate Muslims into an ostensibly secular (but predominantly Catholic) state and society. This book challenges traditional analyses that emphasise the conflict between Muslims and the French state and broader French society, by exploring the intersection of Muslim faith with other identities, as well as the central roles of Muslims in French civil society, politics and the media.
The tensions created by attacks on French soil by Islamic State have contributed to growing acceptance of the Islamophobic discourse of Marine Le Pen and her far-right Front National party, and debates about issues such as headscarves and burkinis have garnered worldwide attention. Downing addresses these issues from a new angle, eschewing the traditional us-and-them narrative and offering a more nuanced account based on people’s actual lived experiences. French Muslims in Perspective will be of interest to students and scholars across sociology, politics, international relations, cultural studies, European Studies and French studies, as well as policy makers and practitioners involved in immigration, education, and media.
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Keywords
Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Dr Joseph Downing is LSE Fellow nationalism in the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, where he teaches courses on global policy and security. He was previously Marie-Curie fellow at the Laboratoire méditerranéen de sociologie, CNRS, Université Aix-Marseille Marseille and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London where he conducted a project on the discourses created about British and French Muslims on Twitter. He has published widely on politics, security and integration in France, concentrating on minority communities.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: French Muslims in Perspective
Book Subtitle: Nationalism, Post-Colonialism and Marginalisation under the Republic
Authors: Joseph Downing
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16103-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-16102-6Published: 04 June 2019
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-16105-7Published: 14 August 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-16103-3Published: 24 May 2019
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIV, 284
Topics: Islam, Political Sociology, Ethnicity Studies, Social Structure, Social Inequality, French Politics