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1 - The (Un)Making of Respectability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2024

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

French Muslim leaders regularly engage in praxis of self-restraint, politeness, and social upliftment in the context of strong assimilationist pressures. Their everyday acts of piety indicate the crafting of a discreet Islam, geared toward appeasing tensions around Muslim presence in France and encouraging justice and respect for minority citizens. These self-limiting forms of political claims – which have gone hitherto unexplored – should be understood as their politics of respectability. This concept, borrowed from Black studies in the US, is used to shed light on the multifaceted dimensions of discreet Islam, whether its incorporation through morals and manners, its grounding in middle-class attributes, or its political ambivalence, resulting in both conservative and emancipatory outcomes for minority citizens. Moreover, studying the respectability politics of French Muslim leaders allows for important epistemological acts, such as moving beyond the images of in-your-face Muslim politics that saturate public discussions, taking the religious commitment of minority citizens seriously, and opening a transatlantic conversation on class and morals in minority politics. To do so, the book builds on an ethnographic inquiry with one of France’s most influential Muslim organizations, the Union des organisations islamiques de France (UOIF, the Union of Islamic Organizations of France), in the context of a tense France following the 2015 terror attacks.

Type
Chapter
Information
Respectable Muslims
Morals and Manners of Minority Citizens in France
, pp. 1 - 33
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • The (Un)Making of Respectability
  • Margot Dazey, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
  • Book: Respectable Muslims
  • Online publication: 18 December 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009535694.001
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  • The (Un)Making of Respectability
  • Margot Dazey, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
  • Book: Respectable Muslims
  • Online publication: 18 December 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009535694.001
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.

  • The (Un)Making of Respectability
  • Margot Dazey, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
  • Book: Respectable Muslims
  • Online publication: 18 December 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009535694.001
Available formats
×