Michel Younès (dir.), L'Islam en France au miroir des éditions Tawhîd, (Profac, Lyon, 2014)
Last update: 2025-01-21 16:08:55
L'Islam en France au miroir des éditions Tawhîd is the attempt of a research team of the CECR (Centre d'étude des cultures et des religions) to outline the profile of French Islam through an analysis of the most important works published by the publishing house Tawhîd which was created in the 1990s in order to meet the need felt by young Muslims born in France educational works on Islam in French.
The texts of Tawhîd are analysed from eight different viewpoints. The first study, which is by étienne Renaud, concentrates on the French translation of the Qur’an edited by Mohamed Chiadmi. Being almost a paraphrase, in the view of the author this work demonstrates not so much a concern to be scholarly as the need to meet the needs of French Muslims who do not have access to Arabic. The second contribution is by Michel Younès and addresses the question of the transmission of faith. In the Tawhîd editions this results in an orientation that he defines as being ‘conservative’, in the sense that it privileges clear and certain statements rather than reflection or debate, having as its purpose that of giving French Muslims a strong identity. The third study, carried out by Maurice Borrmans, concerns acts of worship and emphasises that the works published by Tawhîd concentrate on detailed practical descriptions, albeit leaving space, at least in the brief books of Suhayl Brahami, to observations of a moral and spiritual character, in order to foster the internalisation of ritual. In the fourth contribution Colette Hamza analyses books for children and notes that most of them are new editions of foreign texts which as such do not take into account the French context. However, she has a positive view of the recent attempt of Tawhîd to create its own. The fifth study, by Bénédicte de Chaffaut, analyses the works on the condition of women and singles out two orientations in Tawhîd: one that is defined as ‘traditional reformism’, which is evident in the texts by Hani Ramadan, Fatima Naseef and Malika Dif, according to which men and women are equal spiritually but different biologically, as a result of which they have rights that are not the same but equivalent; and one that is defined as ‘radical reformism’, which is evident in the books by Asma Lamrabet, which contests the patriarchal approach that has conditioned the reading of the fundamental texts of Islam and the production of jurisprudence and relegated women to a marginal role in society. Another study then follows by Maurice Borrmans, which analyses questions and issues connected with life, death, health and illness. It observes that these are addressed on the basis of the classic rules of Islam, being concerned more to encourage Muslims to affirm their identity than to assure adaptations that will allow them to live in a better way in French society. The last article is by Erwin Tanner and focuses on Tariq Ramadan, the author of various works published by Tawhîd, who, in his view, although he presents himself as a reformer adopts an approach that is basically fundamentalist on the question of if and how Muslims can live in European societies. The last contribution is by Bertrand Souchard and analyses the relationship between science and faith. He observes that Tawhîd, although it rejects the ‘radical creationism’ of an author such as Harun Yahya, seems to demonstrate a ‘relative creationism’, given that its various authors have an approach that is essentially fideist.
The conclusions by Michel Younès are that the publishing policy of Tawhîd, although not univocal or monolithic in character, demonstrates that the principal interest of this publishing house is to transmit a solid Muslim identity that can establish itself as such in France without undergoing a dynamic of interaction with the surrounding society. Naturally Islam, in France as elsewhere, is a plural reality that is internally extremely variegated, and Tawhîd is just one of its voices. We should therefore hope for a continuation of this interesting research work by the CECR with the analysis of other publishing houses so that we can obtain an overall vision of the kind of religious formation offered to the Muslims of France.