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Fraternal Critique

The Politics of Muslim Community in France

Kirsten Wesselhoeft

$49.95

Paperback

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English
University of Chicago Press
22 March 2025
An exploration of ways that discord binds rather than divides communal life, through an ethnography of French Muslim activism.

The conversation about Islam in France is framed by the presumption that Muslim communities are a threat to secular solidarity or fraternité. In the face of state repression, French Muslims have not closed ranks around a narrow range of voices; instead, Kirsten Wesselhoeft finds that young Muslim activists have continued to purposefully spark debate about the values that anchor community life. Wesselhoeft argues that such disagreements, far from dividing communities, actually constitute a form of belonging. Some activists call this ethic ""fraternal critique,"" and Wesselhoeft finds in it profound insights about the place for critique in civic life. The French state has reacted to Muslim solidarity with repression, but Wesselhoeft argues that unity need not come at the expense of dissent. Instead, fraternal critique can teach us how to build communities that are worth fighting over and fighting for.
By:  
Imprint:   University of Chicago Press
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 229mm,  Width: 152mm,  Spine: 18mm
Weight:   286g
ISBN:   9780226838281
ISBN 10:   0226838285
Series:   Class 200: New Studies in Religion
Pages:   224
Publication Date:  
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Undergraduate ,  Further / Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Introduction: Engaged Muslims in a Changing France Part I: Forming a Contested Community Chapter One: An Ethics of Discontent Chapter Two: The People of Knowledge Chapter Three: Sisterhood and Its Obligations Part II: The Politics of Muslim Solidarity Chapter Four: The Specter of Communalism Chapter Five: From Secularism to Public Order Conclusion: Social Ethics and the Fragilization of the Collective Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

Kirsten Wesselhoeft is associate professor of religion at Vassar College.

Reviews for Fraternal Critique: The Politics of Muslim Community in France

“In her wide-ranging and clearly conveyed ethnographic work, Wesselhoeft has succeeded in drawing a comprehensive picture of the efforts of a young generation of Muslims to build new institutions of learning in the greater Paris region. She deftly traces ways in which these young Muslims anchor their piety in lively debates about individual rights and women’s autonomy and in doing so gives the lie to misleading rhetoric labeling Muslims as ‘communalists.’” -- John R. Bowen, Washington University in St. Louis “A gifted ethnographer, storyteller, historian, and ethicist, Wesselhoeft brilliantly explores in this book how Muslims in France organize and respond to state-supported hostility and racism. Her central concept, ‘fraternal critique,’ allows for an analysis of debates within social and political movements that does not reduce argument to infighting or division. Instead, Wesselhoeft suggests that it is in the arguing itself that solidarity is practiced and community constituted.” -- Juliane Hammer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill


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