Islam, the Republic and the World, by Alain Gresh

"A specter is haunting the West, the specter of Islam": paraphrasing the Manifesto of the Communist Party, written in 1848, one could thus sum up the feeling which took hold of the leaders of the North, relayed by a few intellectuals anxious to defend the values of the "civilized world" against those of the "barbarians".

In France, the fear is all the stronger as it is located at the confluence of two anxieties: that of Islamist terrorism, accentuated by the horrors of the Algerian civil war and by the consequences of the attacks of September 11, 2001; that of the “threat” represented by the new dangerous classes, immigrants from formerly colonized countries, particularly from the Maghreb. It is the fantasy of this Islamic “threat”, both internal and external, that Alain Gresh dismantles here. Not by presenting a defense of Islam, but from a secular and rational vision of Muslims, in their historical and geographical diversity.

While providing the essential elements for understanding the Muslim religion and its history, the emergence of political Islam and its role in the various conflicts, this work returns to the debates which shook France. Is Islam compatible with democracy? Is the headscarf a weapon against secularism? Can Muslims integrate into European societies? Can French citizens, Muslims and non-Muslims, believers and non-believers, build a common future together?