Amid imbalanced pressures of integration in France, controversial Muslim figures enter the discourse for a French Islam 
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It is widely accepted that, in France, imagining space for Islam in the public arena evokes a no-man’s land. Much ink has flown internationally on the burqa ban and debates on national identity. Francois Hollande was not spared controversy when he walked into the main Mosque of Paris on 18th February to inaugurate a memorial dedicated to the “Muslim soldier.” While on the far right Marine Le Pen qualified the initiative as ‘nauseating’ in her idiosyncratically crude idiom. The UMP accused the socialist party of electoral manipulation. Feelings were equally mitigated amongst the Muslim community, where some talked about a sound effort for national reconciliation while others reprehended the President for hiding the memorial in a citadel where only Muslims would see it. 
There is nothing particularly new about this atmosphere of discomfort. Discussing the role Muslims have or ought to have in France has become an emotionally charged political exercise. Reminiscent of the larger enterprise of western societies’ attempts to deal with the Muslim ‘other’, it has taken on a French twist in a country which still nostalgically cultivates cultural exceptionalism. Tariq Ramadan, France’s black beast, evokes the invention of a new type of citizenship, a kind of psychological status where the citizen still has to prove his integration. Different from legal obligations or language requirements, it imposes supplementary demands, falling under what recent sociologists term ‘moral citizenship’. Although the contours of this new citizenship resist precise definition, they are driven by dynamics of mistrust: loyalty, patriotism, integration and secularism are the terms which form the new textbook for the French moral citizen – probably best captured in Sarkozy’s “France: love it or leave it”.  The current socialist government’s proposal of a headscarf ban from university campuses and its treatment of the Romani issue has proven that the popularized slogan has by far crossed the boundaries of the conservative right. 
These demands of true “French-ness” are very much integrated amongst Muslims who are &#8211; not without divisions &#8211; increasingly attempting to respond to them. The French media has become flooded by features on these new movements of ‘Republican Islam’ or ‘French Islam’, in which the foundations for this new moral citizenship are being set.  Through a confused rhetoric, these groups strangely oscillate between a communitarian ‘guilt trip’ and the nostalgia of a ‘lost France’, and their Muslim counterparts are not spared. 
This trend came under the spotlight in 2011, when Hassen Chalghoumi, an Imam in a sensitive town of the Parisian outskirts, founded a conference with other Muslim representatives to promote what he termed a ‘double mission’. Firmly supporting the ban on the burqa, he exposed French Muslims’ duty to bear not only their religious identity but also their republican heritage. Portrayed as the perfect Muslim who shakes women’s hands, hyperbolically called the emissary of an “Islam of the Enlightenment” and praised by both Left and Right as a model of integration, Chalghoumi quickly became a favourite icon for both the media and the political class. 
Certainly encouraged by the sudden fame, his positions went beyond defending secularism. His speeches often echo some of the most virulent caricatures about young French-born Muslims as he goes into racially offensive alleys where only a Le Pen would be expected to walk. This is the same man who presented himself as the initiator of national reconciliation: he did not hesitate to opt for racist comments in his book where he relates his shock upon seeing his daughter’s primary class picture, asking rhetorically: “Arab, Black, Arab, Black, where are we &#8211; in Timbuktu?&#8221; 
More surprisingly, the past months have seen a resurgence of this phenomenon within the unrelated context of demonstrations against homosexual marriage, as anti-gay marriage right-wing groups did not hesitate to recruit outside mosques to join the protest. This is how Islamic associations ended up marching alongside the same groups who for years have tried to deny their communal rights and space. Themes of integration and vehement reactions about a banner in Arabic quickly came to hijack what was initially a family law-related protest. 
Camel Bechikh, president of ‘Fils de France’ (an organisation promoting a republican Islam) and member of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France, was the main spokesman during these demonstrations &#8211; a perfect platform to advocate for an acultural Islam free from ‘foreign’ attributes. 
In an interview with Rue89 after his participation in a rally organised by the Front National (France’s far-right political party) he refused to be associated with the party. However, his discourse reiterates the FN rhetoric as he highlighted the dangers of mass immigration and the need for moulding young people from immigrant descent into ‘good patriots’. For Bechikh, this would consist not in rejecting one’s origins but appeasing them &#8211; he goes as far as suggesting that Islamic skullcaps could become berets and headscarves replaced by bandanas. 
Although these groups have been under vivid criticism, they continue to federate – even if one may argue that they remain mere instruments of political calculus for diverse parties. Above all, they contribute to showing that the conflict on the national level, highlighted by events such as the inauguration of the memorial of the Muslim soldier, has now very much expanded to the communities themselves. Beyond unilateral discourses of national reconciliation between the French state and its Muslims citizens, it is among the divided Muslims themselves that a dialogue needs to be established. Under the burden of integration, temptations to ‘fit in’ have led some of them to paradoxically become leaders of France’s disturbing normalised Islamophobia.
<pre>Image from: http://mideastposts.com/middle-east-society/religion-in-the-middle-east/common-ground-in-the-doha-debate-on-the-burqa-ban/</pre>

Fighting for French Islam: Integration to Islamophobia?

François Hollande’s political track record is questionable and change has yet to be seen in France 
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Earlier this month, on 6<ins cite="mailto:Zainab%20Rahim" datetime="2012-05-20T17:01"> </ins>May, France turned a new page by electing the socialist candidate François Hollande as its president. Yet, while thousands of people gathered at the historical palace of la Bastille to celebrate the much awaited end of Nicolas Sarkozy’s mandate, I chose to remain in front of my television with relative restraint. It was not my cynicism talking, but my memory reminding me to draw serious conclusions from what happened during the past few months<ins cite="mailto:Zainab%20Rahim" datetime="2012-05-20T17:05">.</ins> 
The election of François Hollande reminded me somewhat of Obama’s election when public opinion cast him as a Nitzcheen übermensch who would put behind the Bush era and make a real change for the country. Hopes were high, but so too were the disappointments that followed. Regarding François Hollande, the strength of his movement and campaign has been gravitating around the leitmotiv of change and a structural anti-Sarkozysm has been a uniting force to this end. However, it seems difficult to know whether the vote for the socialist candidate is more than merely a sanction against Sarkozy. It is most probably the first challenge the new government will have to face<ins cite="mailto:Zainab%20Rahim" datetime="2012-05-20T17:07">;</ins> now that Sarkozy is out of the equation, they will have to unite people around their ideal for France. 
This is precisely where the retrospective in the presidential election campaign comes to defuse the general euphoria. Indeed, this election has revealed the extent of the symptoms from which our society suffers. During the run for the Elysée, we have systematically undermined the public debate regarding the €90 billion public deficit and the unemployment rate approaching ten per<ins cite="mailto:Zainab%20Rahim" datetime="2012-05-20T17:08"> </ins>cent. Instead, personal attacks have prevailed with an excess of populism, and the key issues facing the nation are submerged under the same contrived chorus of halal meat at school canteens, Islamic radicalism and questions debating whether or not we should have different swimming pool hours for women. No one can deny that Le Pen or even Sarkozy have clearly seized the opportunity to surf on this recent swell of xenophobic waves. Tellingly, it matters little which candidates initiated these debates, or the extent to which each has contributed, because these questions seem to be important<ins cite="mailto:Zainab%20Rahim" datetime="2012-05-20T17:10"> </ins>for a large number of French people. 
We have reached a point where we have accommodated those sterile themes and variations<ins cite="mailto:Zainab%20Rahim" datetime="2012-05-20T17:11">,</ins> and have integrated them as part of the political sphere. The extreme<ins cite="mailto:Zainab%20Rahim" datetime="2012-05-20T17:13">&#8211; </ins><ins cite="mailto:Zainab%20Rahim" datetime="2012-05-20T17:10">r</ins>ight’s share of almost 20 per cent at the first ballot, and the very thin 1.8 per cent that separated Hollande from Sarkozy, are significant elements which lead to the observation that our country is severely fractured. It seems clear that France will need more than a new government to implement the change that Hollande promises. Furthermore, one should remember that as a member of parliament, François Hollande has never condemned with the adequate firmness and force, the sometimes Islamophobic drift of political debate. 
Similarly, during his campaign, while referring to the extreme-right’s votes as a “vote of anger” or “vote of crisis”, he has often shown a relative acquiescence to some of their demands, reminding us that he was amongst those voting for bans against the burqa or the niqab in the public space. On the verge of the <ins cite="mailto:Zainab%20Rahim" datetime="2012-05-20T17:14">p</ins>arliament elections, in which polls foresee a parliamentary representation of 12.5 per cent for ‘National Front,’ the extreme right party, the victory cannot be complete and satisfactory.<ins cite="mailto:Zainab%20Rahim" datetime="2012-05-20T17:16"></ins> 
The end of Sarkozy’s mandate is not an end in itself, and the new president will have to be judged on his ability to resist in front of these challenges, and unite around a new project of society for France. 
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Farah Mendjour