Evaluating the Governance of Islam in France

This paper will examine the politics of the governance of Islam in France in the decade since the creation of the French Council for the Muslim Faith and the banning of the headscarf in primary and secondary public schools. Recent flare-ups of anti-Semitic violence and the departure of nearly 1,000 French citizens to join the “Islamic State” suggest that government-led integration efforts are faltering and that an indefinite state of political alienation is setting in. But there are also signs that French Muslims are politically mobilizing within a broad spectrum of political opinion and mobilization. On the basis of interviews with French officials and Muslim leaders, and drawing on polling data from the EURISLAM consortium, I will assess the success and failures of religious affairs policies and political integration of this target population.