Reconfiguring French Secularism: the Mosque As the New Multicultural Space of Young Muslims
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Syracuse University SURFACE Dissertations - ALL SURFACE December 2015 Reconfiguring rF ench Secularism: The Mosque as the New Multicultural Space of Young Muslims Ayse Ozcan Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/etd Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Ozcan, Ayse, "Reconfiguring rF ench Secularism: The Mosque as the New Multicultural Space of Young Muslims" (2015). Dissertations - ALL. 400. https://surface.syr.edu/etd/400 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the SURFACE at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations - ALL by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABSTRACT This dissertation explores the ways in which secularism communicates with Islam both as a socio-political concept and as daily practice in the context of France. Most studies examine this process through the uses of the headscarf or within the framework of terrorism. This study suggests a fresh perspective by using an experimental spatial analysis with a focus on the major mosques and the practices of mosque congregants. It poses the question how French Muslims reconcile French secularism (laïcité) with Islam through the use of the mosque space. In this respect, mosques are transformed into alternative multicultural spaces where the secular and Islamic are given new meanings and negotiated by Muslims. I argue that the primary actors of this transformation are young Muslims with a dynamic and innovative approach to contextual interpretations of secular and Islamic practices. In this respect, they differ from their conservative counterparts who are bound to the Islamic teachings in Muslim countries regardless of their relevancy. This study concludes that young French Muslims have been undergoing a change from within, and its effects in the wider society are yet to be observed amidst the escalating negative views against Muslims in the West. RECONFIGURING FRENCH SECULARISM: THE MOSQUE AS THE NEW MULTICULTURAL SPACE OF YOUNG MUSLIMS By: Ayşe Özcan B.A. Istanbul University, 2000 M.A. Doğuş University, 2006 M.A. Syracuse University, 2013 Dissertation Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology Syracuse University December 2015 Copyright © Ayşe Özcan 2015 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my appreciation to many people and institutions that helped me through this long journey, and made the completion of this dissertation possible. I am deeply indebted to Mr. Achebouche, who introduced me to the two mosques, which became my major field sites, and provided me with his generous support throughout my research. I extend my sincere gratitude to all my informants who welcomed me to their lives with a genuinely friendly attitude, shared their stories, and gave me their precious time, and assistance with patience and sincerity. Throughout my PhD journey, I have been offered intellectual guidance by distinguished professors. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Professor Hans Buechler, who provided me with every bit of guidance that I needed during all stages of my fieldwork and dissertation writing. Professor Buechler gave me freedom, at the same time continued to give me valuable feedback, advice and encouragement with his academic and personal wisdom. I acknowledge his persistent help along this journey as I continue to learn from him. Equally, I have received invaluable support and encouragement from Professor Peter Castro, who have inspired me in many ways. His early comments helped my writing immensely. I would like to thank Professor Azra Hromadzic for her detailed feedback, which encouraged me to improve my critical thinking and Professor John Western, who has contributed to my dissertation with very useful comments. Professor Levent Soysal has equally provided me with intellectual insights during our extensive discussions. Special thanks go to Professor Audie Klotz, who was willing to serve as chair of the defense. In addition, a thank you to Professor William Kelleher, who introduced me to graduate school at Syracuse University, and whose enthusiasm for academic freedom had lasting effect. iv I am deeply thankful to my family for their unconditional love, support, and sacrifices. They never lost their faith in me. My mother Berrin Özcan, and my father Mehmet Özcan were always there for me with their full trust in me. My brother Emre Özcan has always inspired me with his intellect. I have benefited immensely from our all-night-long discussions on Europe, and its socio-political history. Last, but not least, I owe a great debt of gratitude to Fulbright for providing me with a teaching assistant scholarship, which led to my graduate studies at Syracuse University to which I owe another gratitude for providing me with the financial supports that I needed to complete my graduate studies through various sources: Syracuse University Goekjian Institute, University’s Roscoe Martin Scholarship, Syracuse University’s summer Dean’s fellowship, and funding from the Claudia De Lys Scholarship from the Department of Anthropology. v Dedications To my parents Mehmet and Berrin Özcan & my brother Emre Özcan vi Reconfiguring French Secularism: The Mosque as the New Multicultural Space of Young Muslims TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………………….……iv Dedications……………………………………………………………………………….…...vi List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………….viii Chapter 1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………1 Chapter 2 Contexts of Laïcité and Multicultural Spaces in France…………….…….....58 Chapter 3 The Mosque: A Multi-Reference Space………………………….…………..97 Chapter 4 The Mosque as a Religious Space and its Traditional Leaders……..…..…..138 Chapter 5 Laïcité and Religion: Young Leaders of the Mosque…………………...…..182 Chapter 6 An Ongoing Dynamism: The New Muslim Youth Culture………….…..….225 Chapter 7 Conclusion…………………………………………………………….….….266 References….. ……………………………………………………………….…….…..…….279 Vita…………………………………………………………………………………………..301 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: A view of Al-Ihsan Mosque from across Val d'Argenteuil train station…………....90 Figure 2: Al-Hidaya Mosque on an open house day……………………………………………………...94 Figure 3: Members of the Coexister Paris with the Al-Ihsan Mosque congregants………….119 Figure 4: A Famille92 member in her jilbab asking for a donation from a random grocery store customer…………………………………………………………………………………211 viii 1 Chapter 1 Introduction It was a beautiful summer day, as I made my way to Argenteuil, a major banlieue1 of Paris with a large population of immigrants. The holy month of Ramadan had just begun, and Parisians were well aware of this due to the billboards in metro stations and other major public spots depicting images of iftar2 meals. In these advertisements Muslims were encouraged to eat couscous3 and break their fast in advertised halal restaurants. After witnessing this visibility of Ramadan in the streets of Paris, I took the train from St. Lazard Gare to start my 15 km-long journey to Al-Ihsan Mosque, very excited to see how French Muslims were spending a Ramadan day in their “religious space,” which is itself quite visible with its minarets and large dome. Unlike my experiences during preliminary research in previous years, I noticed a different dynamism this time. There had been preparations to give free iftars to local needy people in the past as well, but most of these had been carried out under the supervision of the mosque administration. Mosque staff, along with some volunteers, had been given instructions on what to do. This year, however, a young leader named Amor had taken the initiative, hoping that this time things would be different. Knowing the mosque and certain congregants’ delicacy on the practice of working in gender mixed groups, he decided to work with some young male congregants. Amor wanted to be systematic and he wanted to organize them by first explaining the incentives to take leadership this Ramadan. To meet this purpose, he arranged a meeting in one of the rooms, and invited Nabil, the 23-year-old French-born imam, to represent the mosque administration. Other 1 Banlieue is the French term used for a suburb of a large city. Since the 1970s the term has been increasingly used to describe low-income housing projects (HLMs) for immigrant workers and French of foreign descent who live in the suburbs. 2 Iftar is the Ramadan evening meal when Muslims break their fast at sunset. 3 Couscous is a traditional dish made of wheat and served with a meat or vegetable. It is a staple food throughout the North African cuisines of mainly Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. 2 than the imam, there was only Amor’s friend, to represent the administration, a volunteer in charge of financial operations of the mosque. The imam kept silent most of the time, and Amor told me later that he deliberately wanted to engage the imam this meeting to gain his support for future activities, and to change his mind set in his approach to educating young Muslims since Nabil was somewhat open to new experiences within the mosque. Approximately twenty men in their early twenties attended the meeting. This meeting was clearly small in scale, but the room where they gathered had symbolic significance for offering a platform to young congregants to voice their opinions, and position themselves differently from the rest of the people in the mosque. Amor welcomed everyone who wished to take part in the iftar preparations, and it turned out that those who volunteered did not have pre-established strict opinions on matters about religion and social relations. Some of these men were friends from the mosque or the neighborhood, but each introduced themselves before forming groups to prepare the mosque for the iftar. Most of these were students raised in North African households in France. One was a Muslim convert. Maybe because of the composition of the meeting attendees, he first asked Amor whether Islam dictates men and women work and socialize separately to which Amor responded in the negative.