On the Muslim question: The contentious politics of citizenship in France

The central argument of this book is that the unified and persistent elite discourse about Muslims as failed or somehow incomplete French citizens has social and legal consequences for Muslims in France. The status of Muslims in France as citizens is undercut in both legal and informal ways. Outright denials of equal treatment by state officials for Muslims are more rare, but they do happen occasionally and can generate questions about the status of Muslims as French citizens. Potentially more problematic, however, are the routine indignities that Muslims face in society on a daily basis. These kinds of societal devaluations of Muslims as citizens, reinforced by the elite discourse, both lead to and feed on daily indignities and even material inequality: difficulties in finding a job, discouragement from school instructors, challenges in securing housing or money for a new business. Moreover, the existence of formal rights may blind some to these social realities of being Muslim in France, and increase their scorn for Muslims for not "making it" when they supposedly have all the resources they need to be good citizens. Meanwhile, for Muslims, formal rights become empty abstractions that cannot easily offset the social stigma they regularly encounter.;The elite discourse in powerful two ways. It is powerful in the sense that, as noted above, it has far-reaching implications for Muslims in France. It is also powerful in the sense that it is made by those in institutional positions of power, positions that enable the speakers to make policy decisions and frame social debate in exactly these terms of "good citizen" and "bad citizen." The monolithic elite frame of bad or incomplete Muslim citizenship, and the companion frame of Muslims as solely religious creatures who can only be understood through the lens of Islam, does not recognize the diversity of Muslim opinions, politics, and socioeconomic experiences. This restrictive elite discourse provides little to no room for the diversity of claims-making of Muslims in France today. Many of France's Muslims are proud of their French identity, and claim it using thoroughly French methods of political engagement and activism.