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4 - Keeping Order

Responsible Muslims against Urban Unrest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2024

Margot Dazey
Affiliation:
French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
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Summary

Community leaders attempt to deflect the stigma of the “angry” and “disorderly” Muslim by participating in local politics. In the wake of urban unrest affecting disadvantaged neighborhoods in France, Muslim leaders of the UOIF have leveraged their community influence to facilitate the integration of migrant-origin populations and keep these neighborhoods quiet. This chapter sheds light on their politics during episodes of social turmoil, such as the 2001 unrest in Lille and the 2005 riots throughout France. Beyond times of crisis, their role as social troubleshooters is reflected in the dissemination of an ethos of responsibility. Through various activities, including charitable assistance, professional insertion, and campaigns against drugs, these Muslim leaders partially converge with public authorities about the need to preserve order in “sensitive neighborhoods.” In ways reminiscent of Black middle-class reformers in the early twentieth-century US, UOIF leaders promote the uplift ideology that values self-reliance, discipline, and hard work. They seek to transform young urban worshippers into moral subjects, committed to avoiding the dishonorable pitfalls of idleness and incivility. However, positioning themselves as social troubleshooters is costly as these leaders unwittingly reproduce the dominant representations of migrants’ neighborhoods as problematic and, consequently, tend to divert attention from the structural causes of marginalization.

Type
Chapter
Information
Respectable Muslims
Morals and Manners of Minority Citizens in France
, pp. 94 - 115
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Keeping Order
  • Margot Dazey, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
  • Book: Respectable Muslims
  • Online publication: 18 December 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009535694.004
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Keeping Order
  • Margot Dazey, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
  • Book: Respectable Muslims
  • Online publication: 18 December 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009535694.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Keeping Order
  • Margot Dazey, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
  • Book: Respectable Muslims
  • Online publication: 18 December 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009535694.004
Available formats
×