Fraternal Critique - (Class 200: New Studies in Religion) by Kirsten Wesselhoeft

Book Synopsis

An exploration of ways that discord binds rather than divides communal life, through an ethnography of French Muslim activism.

The conversation about Islam in France is framed by the presumption that Muslim communities are a threat to secular solidarity or fraternité. In the face of state repression, French Muslims have not closed ranks around a narrow range of voices; instead, Kirsten Wesselhoeft finds that young Muslim activists have continued to purposefully spark debate about the values that anchor community life. Wesselhoeft argues that such disagreements, far from dividing communities, actually constitute a form of belonging. Some activists call this ethic "fraternal critique," and Wesselhoeft finds in it profound insights about the place for critique in civic life. The French state has reacted to Muslim solidarity with repression, but Wesselhoeft argues that unity need not come at the expense of dissent. Instead, fraternal critique can teach us how to build communities that are worth fighting over and fighting for.

Review Quotes

"A well-crafted and persuasively written account of Muslim community in twenty-first-
century France. . . . Through razor-sharp analysis of fine ethnography and astute reading of French public discourse, Wesselhoeft redraws anthropological debates on Islam and secularism in France. Wesselhoeft trenchantly observes how the state regulation of communalism does not simply constrain Muslim life but rather offers the grounds to establish a particular kind of Muslim communalism. . . . Fraternal Critique is sophisticated, and yet accessible to undergraduates who can stage their own debates about the possibilities and limits of critique."-- "Religious Studies Review"

"In Fraternal Critique, [Wesselhoeft] shows how dissatisfaction can serve as a solid ethical method for building community and solidarity. The book underscores the beauty of internal dissent within the French Muslim community and how its very possibility has been fragilized by recent evolutions of French secularism. An acute observer of France and a close reader of French social sciences, Wesselhoeft offers an important contribution to the study of French Islam at a time when widespread 'anxiety over claims of Muslim collectivity' (p. 134) has made it increasingly difficult to grasp with clarity and rigor the actual fabric of French Muslim community life."-- "Politics, Religion, and Ideology"

"A gifted ethnographer, storyteller, historian, and ethicist, Wesselhoeft brilliantly explores in this book how Muslims in France organize and respond to state-supported hostility and racism. Her central concept, 'fraternal critique, ' allows for an analysis of debates within social and political movements that does not reduce argument to infighting or division. Instead, Wesselhoeft suggests that it is in the arguing itself that solidarity is practiced and community constituted."--Juliane Hammer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"In her wide-ranging and clearly conveyed ethnographic work, Wesselhoeft has succeeded in drawing a comprehensive picture of the efforts of a young generation of Muslims to build new institutions of learning in the greater Paris region. She deftly traces ways in which these young Muslims anchor their piety in lively debates about individual rights and women's autonomy and in doing so gives the lie to misleading rhetoric labeling Muslims as 'communalists.'"--John R. Bowen, Washington University in St. Louis

About the Author

Kirsten Wesselhoeft is associate professor of religion at Vassar College.