In 1952, a group of high-level Muslim intellectuals created the “Islamic Cultural Center” in Paris. Attracted by Europe to acquire knowledge, they wanted to know, to know themselves and, if possible, to make themselves known.

Without any other resource than their erudition, their willingness to bring a collective project to fruition and their openness to dialogue, these Muslims in modernity knew how to create a space of expression and exchange where Muslim speech listens to that of others spiritual families has overcome many prejudices and advanced mutual knowledge.

Loyal cooperation with orientalists who renounced assigning the Muslim the role of “native informant” allowed them to run an open university at La Sorbonne and to contribute to satisfying, in part, the growing demand for knowledge on Islam aroused by the Algerian War.

Through these activities, the ICC recalled the intellectual vitality of the Muslim Brotherhood that Muslim intellectuals had created in 1907 in Paris.

The founders of the ICC, some of whom were members of the CNRS, had begun to prepare a collective work on Islam in which the editors wanted to express their religious sensitivity. This project did not come to fruition. It is the verbatim of the preparation sessions, supplemented by articles written for specialized journals by the members of this group whose act of writing was easy, which is the subject of this edition. The reminder of this important episode in the intellectual history of Islam in France, which remains to be written, is also a call to know it better. The example of these illustrious predecessors could inspire those who seek to remedy the educational deficiencies of Muslim authorities in France.