Secularism, Islam and Public Intellectuals in Contemporary France

Islam in France is often regarded as a political ‘issue’ and much of the scholarly and public debates about Islam in contemporary France over the last three decades have concentrated on the supposedly ‘antagonistic’ relationship between France, Islam and its Muslims. Against such a troubled backdrop, however, this book looks at the ways in which certain prominent French Muslim intellectuals seek to articulate a vision of multi-faith co-existence, which embraces a critical secularism, and which simultaneously draw on religious and secular humanist traditions. Intellectuals have historically played a major part in French public life, yet relatively little is known about the work of Abdelwahab Meddeb, Malek Chebel, Leïla Babès, Dounia Bouzar and Abdennour Bidar, whose writings and public interventions this book examines. Secularism, Islam and public intellectuals in contemporary France will be of particular interest to specialists, undergraduate and post-graduate students working across the Humanities and Social Sciences from disciplines such as Francophone Studies, Anthropology, Religious Studies or Sociology.

'Nadia Kiwan’s book, Secularism, Islam and Public Intellectuals in Contemporary France, addresses a topic that receives little attention in the social sciences: the position of Muslim intellectuals in France and their relationship to secularism. The interest of this work stretches beyond her object of study, and the problems she addresses speak to broader topics in preceding work on secularism and on the sociology of intellectuals. Kiwan’s goal is to shed light upon how knowledge production among secular Muslim intellectuals can be affected by hegemonic political discourses that casts Islam as contradictory to French values. Kiwan gives an extensive overview of French Muslim intellectuals in an original way.'Europe Now'In Secularism, Islam and Public Intellectuals in Contemporary France, Nadia Kiwan offers a detailed account of the works of five French Muslim secular intellectuals who diversely aim at articulating a "vision of multi-faith existence with universalist of vivre ensemble".'Hamza Esmili, Ethnic and Racial Studies'With a study devoted to key figures of the secular Muslim intellectual field in France, Nadia Kiwan addresses a significant lacuna in the literature on French and Francophone public intellectuals.'Dimitri Almeida, Modern & Contemporary France, 30:3

Nadia Kiwan is Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of Aberdeen