HYPOTHESES CONCERNING ISLAM AS RELIGION TRANSPLANTED INTO EUROPE

On the basis of research carried out on Islamic populations within host societies and with the help of a comparative analysis of the religious behaviours and social strategies of the various communities considered (Maghrebin, Turkish and Pakistani), the author proposes an initial typology of the transformation of a religious field as yet too little known and hence difficult to delimit. Tendencies along three lines are analysed here. (1) ''Re-Islamization'' which is being organized among fundamentalist and neo-fundamentalist groups. (2) ''Traditional Islam'' which oscillates between two types of behaviour: (a) on the one hand, the community's turning in on itself and organization of a defence where the religious dimension plays a role in symbolic identification, value transmission and familial reproduction, and (b) on the other hand, the choice of adaptive behaviours and transformation of the religious situation given the new social context. (3) Finally, ''secularized Islam, where the religious dimension is progressively abandoned in favour of an essentially cultural identification.