Muslim Communities and the Media in France

Abstract

Despite the large number of Muslims living in France, and unlike the situation in English-speaking countries and Spain, there is a notable absence of media in France dealing with Muslim issues. Apart from a magazine called Le Musulman, launched in the 1960s by Professor Muhammad Hamidullah, and aimed at Muslim intellectuals living in France, there was nothing else until the late 1990s. And Le Musulman stopped appearing in 1998. There are many reasons for this state of affairs. Unlike the USA and Great Britain, very few Muslim intellectuals migrated to France. Also, Muslim immigrants to France were more likely to see themselves as ‘foreign workers’ than belonging to a category called ‘Muslims’. It was not until the third generation of these migrant families that Muslims started to make efforts to set up community newspapers. The end of the 1990s saw the emergence in France of magazines such as Islam de France, La Médina, Hawwa, Saphir Le Mèdiateur, and Réflexions — Reflets de l’Islam. But these publications disappeared again, soon after they had come out. Another contributing factor is that commercial advertisers are still not ready to invest in publications dealing with Muslim issues.