France and Islam: Introduction (original) (raw)

2007, French Historical Studies

Recent global events have focused attention on the Islamic world and encouraged the resurgence of the unfortunate stereotypes of Muslims as fanatical and Islam as a religion with a proselytizing zeal structured by the jihad, or holy war. But many of the historical connections that the juxtaposition of France and Islam conjure up-the Crusades, orientalism, or the postcolonial "banlieues" and immigrant ghettos-are also associated with France initiating or participating in conflict and violence, be it military, political, social, or cultural. France's relations with Islam have always been difficult, at times hostile, at others more conciliatory, but a historiographical preoccupation with the most confrontational dimensions of the relationship obscures its complexity and diminishes the ambiguous roles of the players involved. The choice of the terms France and Islam to describe what follows is, of course, a conceptual anomaly: France signifying a state or nation, Islam a religion. Even if at an earlier stage of their relationship France, as a major Catholic country, had religious connotations, over time the significance of the term has shifted from Christian state to secular nation, whereas Islam has remained for the West a signifier of religion. Retaining these two terms, in spite of the evolution of their linguistic and cultural significance, is thus emblematic of the West's present