Islamic preaching in France: Admonitory addresses or a political platform?

Abstract

For decades now those Muslims who regularly attend mosques or prayer rooms in France hear a sermon every Friday. The subjects of these sermons, as well as the environment in which they are delivered, show the characteristics of an Islam which has been transplanted to the West. This present study shows the modifications to which this preaching has been subjected in this diaspora situation: modifications in the performance of what is strictly speaking a parenetic act, and a re‐interpretation of the purpose of this preaching, arising from a changed Islamic religious function within the Western context. The fundamental question is to determine whether the mosque has become the place for the development of religious awareness in the strict sense, or whether it includes other functions, for example, in the field of social conduct, or in the development of para‐religious ideologies.