Muslim youth in France

During the last 18 months, in France perhaps more than in other European countries, Islam has turned into a frequent newspaper headline. The newspaper Le Monde even promoted Islam de France as one of the topics which marked at the national level the year 2003! The disproportionality between the size of the Muslim population and the media coverage it receives is an indication of the symbolic nature of the debate1 . Muslim minds – and bodies - are arenas for the contested politics of the nation. Public debates were filled up to saturation with the Muslim question, which had been latent throughout the last decade and re-emerged in early 2003 with the much-applauded (and equally criticised) constitution of the Conseil français du culte musulman (CFCM), a body aimed at providing Islam with public recognition as well as the state with legitimate religious authorities; it was then given new impetus in April 2003 at the annual Muslim gathering in the Parisian suburb of Le Bourget, which that year included the then Home Minister Nicolas Sarkozy as the guest of honour; and it continued until adoption of the law at the National Assembly forbidding conspicuous religious signs in public schools.