Can French Islam be Algerian, Moroccan and Turkish?

This paper examines state-Islam relations in France before and after the January 2015 attacks. Just as 9/11 jumpstarted negotiations with Islamic interlocutors and led to the creation of the Conseil français du culte musulman (CFCM), the Paris shootings reinvigorated the stagnant relationship with religious actors. The main differences with 2001 are demographic — another generation of French Muslims has made its way to high school — and geopolitical. Neither Afghanistan nor Iraq ever attracted many European Muslim combatants, but by 2015 thousands of French citizens had left to join the Islamic State in Syria. This paper examines the variety of consultative initiatives across government and political parties that target areas beyond religious practice and take on religious “ideology.” The process has produced small breakthroughs in imam training, theological studies and new efforts to counteract violent extremism discourse in prisons, schools and on the Internet. The security concerns have also reinforced a strain of realism regarding Muslim communities’  foreign ties that confirms France’s unique niche within global Islam and will further inscribe Islam within the French religious landscape.