Defining a French Mosque: Pragmatic Applications of LaïCité in the Policy of French Islam

In 2002, the Consultation, an initiative launched by the French Interior Ministry Jean-Pierre Chevènement and driven by a mix of national Muslim associations, Grand Mosques, and experts, licensed 70% of mosques in France to participate in the elections for a national representative council. The collaborative process of licensing French mosques reveals an inherent flexibility in both government and civic approaches to laïcité, a legal principle separating religion and state in the public sphere. Traditional state-religion models fail to explain how the French government justified intervention in matters many believed were outside of its purview. How did the Consultation develop a licensing process to spur the creation of a French Islam while respecting the legal regime of laïcité?

This paper will ultimately argue for the importance of institutional translation by Consultation participants, the process that turns policy into specific initiatives such as the licensing process. This paper will work from the “bottom-up” through an assessment of the technical details underpinning the licensing process such the development of eligible mosque electoral lists and the delegate distribution scheme. Looking at the development of these details reveals the importance of political councilors, the information at their disposal, and their extensive interaction with security institutions such as the police and the DCRG. The context in which these decisions were made influenced both state officials and Muslim participants to openly compete for influence through the development of a licensing scheme that could favor particular forms of Islam.