L’Islam de France ou les Banlieues de la Laïcité

Abstract Since the 1980s, the question of Islam in France has been an element of the smaller and larger fears of French society. First exploited by the countries of origin of Muslim immigrants or by mayors of suburbs wishing to use religious associations to combat delinquency, the construction of Islam in France quickly came up against a current situation made up of the successive “affairs of Islamic veil”, controversies over secularism and terrorist violence in a context of rising extreme right-wing political trends riding on concerns about security. This article delineates these disparate but related trends and events that turn “Islam in France” into a “Muslim problem” which leads to a separate, “exceptional,” legal approach to citizens of Muslim faith.