![]() The 1905 Law on the Separation of Church and State also provides for the freedom of exercise of religion and the right to establish places of worship. It was within this context that the first prayer rooms were established in factories and on sites where migrant workers were accommodated. This period not only saw the increased presence of Muslim populations, but also placed the problematic relationship between the colonial state and Islam on France’s doorstep. And in an attempt to create favorable conditions for the maintenance of this labor force, the state implemented generalized policies for family reunification. 1 Following World War II, France encouraged and facilitated the migration of people from its colonies to rebuild the country. ![]() While in mainland France, laicité (secularity) was solidified through the 1905 Law on the Separation of Church and State, it did not apply to Algeria, where an “official” form of Islam loyal to the colonial state was cultivated. The French colonial project continued this close, if often uneasy, relationship between France and Islam. The Umayyad invasion of Gaul (719–759 AD), and eight hundred years later the Franco-Ottoman alliance in the siege of Nice (1543), testify to France’s involvement in the history of the Mediterranean, and thus the spread of Islam itself. This provides critics with further evidence of Islam’s “visibility problem,” only further hindering the development of solutions that can serve the needs not only of the Muslim community, but also French cities as a whole. But these spaces are usually insufficient, with their limited capacity sometimes prompting the use of the street as an alternative space for prayer. With the goal of reducing the visibility of Islamic prayer, then, officials prefer the establishment of discreet prayer rooms to the construction of mosques. Furthermore, the visibility of Islam and Muslims in France is constructed, at state level, as a “problem” of security and a failure of integration policy. Yet architectural elements deemed “characteristic” of mosque architecture tend to be endlessly debated and questioned on their capacity to fit within local urban fabrics. Public architecture of French mosques fails to reflect the diversity-and thus meet the needs-of the French Muslim community.įrench mosques that can be easily and publicly recognized as such tend to transpose codes of Islamic architecture found in North Africa, with the Grand Mosque of Paris and the Grand Mosque of Strasbourg being the most prominent examples. Beyond implementation, however, mosque architecture in France remains largely influenced by the places of origin of its immigrant Muslim populations, which consolidates the image of Islam as foreign to France, rather than a legitimate part of the national religious landscape. Yet the political climate surrounding the creation of mosques, including state-level restrictions on public funding of all places of worship, make the process drawn out and fraught with challenges. ![]() Throughout its history and colonial project, Islam has served as a counterpoint, allowing French identity to consolidate in relation to this identifiably different “other.” The estimated five million Muslim people living in France today obviously need and deserve places to worship. You can always change your preference by visiting 'Cookie Settings' at the bottom of the page.Islam has been an integral part of France since the eighth century. Blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. Because we respect your right to privacy, optional cookies are not set unless you enable them. We would like to set optional cookies to give you a better user experience and to assist us in understanding how visitors use our site. We use Strictly Necessary cookies to make our website work. ![]() The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. ![]()
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