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ISLAM and adaptation to a WESTERN SECULAR SOCIETY

[Event has ended]

Mon, 3 January 2011, 7.30PM - 9.30PM | English

MUIS Auditorium

Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP), MUIS ACADEMY

Prof. Olivier Roy

talk

Fees: Free

“French secularism is the most constraining form of secularism in the West because it is not only defined as a strict legal system of separation of religion and state but also because it is more than ever constructed as an ideological system of norms and values that should be applied to all citizens. This secularism is a product of the struggle between the Catholic Church and the French Republic, but recently most of the traditional Christian right has joined the secularist left to oppose Islam, although they disagree on what is the basis of the French identity (Christian or secularist?): this left-right allaince is by the way at the basis of the wave of "populism" that has recently engulfed Western Europe making Islam its main target.

Confronted with that, a very diverse but growing Muslim population adapts a vast array of different ways to express its faith: adopting a very secular way of life, constructing a “French Islam”, taking refuge in various forms of non-political fundamentalisms (salafism, Tabligh), or, for a fringe of young people, becoming politically radicalized. Although the debate is very tense, the slow rise of an educated Muslim middle class is changing the social and political landscape.”