Secularization as Integration: Tareq Oubrou’s Religious Justification for Laïcité in France

Muslim organizations and figures of religious authority in France have long resisted, and sometimes fought, secularism. However, in recent years, few Muslim intellectuals and theologians have moved to promote laïcité. In particular, the imam of Bordeaux, Tareq Oubrou (born in 1959), arguably one of the most influential Muslim figures in French Islam today, has embraced laïcité, becoming one of its main advocates among Muslims in France. This article examines Oubrou’s sociological profile as a religious authority, his evolution from Islamism to laïcité, and the context of his transformation. Then, I will discuss the arguments he made to support secularism, with a focus on his theology of secularization and views on secularizing sharia. The discursive corpus of this study consists of Oubrou’s works published between 2009 and 2017. As a method of analysis, I combine the sociology of authority with the anthropology of religious discourse, shedding light on how social and political dynamics in France influence religious discourse and push religious leaders to change their positions.