Governing Islam Abroad

645 Pages·2014·9.9 MB·English

Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris
ECOLE DOCTORALE DE SCIENCES PO
Programme doctoral Relations internationales
Centre d’études et de recherches internationales (CERI)
Doctorat en Science politique
Governing Islam Abroad
The Turkish and Moroccan Muslim Fields in France and
Germany
Benjamin BRUCE
Thèse dirigée par Madame Catherine WIHTOL DE WENDEN, Directrice
de recherche CNRS-CERI, Sciences Po Paris

Soutenue le 15 janvier 2015

Jury :

M. Bayram BALCI, Ingénieur de recherche, CNRS-CERI
M. Matthias KOENIG, Professor, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
M. Jonathan LAURENCE, Associate Professor, Boston College (rapporteur)
M. Olivier ROY, Directeur de recherche, EHESS (rapporteur)
Mme Catherine WIHTOL DE WENDEN, Directrice de recherche, CNRS-
CERI (directrice de thèse)

Thesis Abstract

Over the last fifty years, Turks and Moroccans have come to form the two largest diaspora
groups in Western Europe, with the largest numbers in Germany and France respectively. The
states of origin of these populations have developed a wide variety of policies aimed at their
citizens abroad, amongst which Islam has figured prominently. For decades, the official
institutions of state religious governance in Turkey and Morocco, the Presidency of Religious
Affairs (Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı) and the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs, have
actively engaged in providing support to Muslim groups in France and Germany, from sending
imams to directly financing mosques and the associations that run them.

This doctoral thesis seeks to respond to the following questions: how and why are Turkey and
Morocco able to govern Islam outside of their national boundaries, and what are the
consequences for the development of Muslim fields in France and Germany? Based on over
one hundred interviews carried out with diplomats, state religious officials, and non-state
religious actors in all four countries, this study argues that in contrast to France and Germany,
the Turkish and Moroccan states consider religious governance as a distinct domain of public
policy. Thanks to diplomatic cooperation and converging interstate interests, both home states
have been able to expand their religious activities within transnational Muslim fields. In
particular, Turkey and Morocco seek to promote a legal-rational model of religious authority
and a national form of Islam, ultimately reinforcing both the position of home state religious
institutions and ethno-national boundaries in religious fields abroad.

Key words: diaspora politics, transnational Islam, religious governance, foreign policy,
Turkey, Morocco, France, Germany.

Benjamin Bruce – “Governing Islam Abroad” – Thèse IEP de Paris – 2015 3
Résumé de la thèse

Au cours des cinquante dernières années, les communautés turques et marocaines sont
devenues les deux groupes diasporiques les plus importants en Europe occidentale, notamment
en Allemagne et en France. Les États d’origine de ces populations ont développé de
nombreuses politiques envers leurs ressortissants à l’étranger, parmi lesquelles l’islam occupe
un lieu privilégié. Depuis des décennies, les instances étatiques officielles chargées de la
gouvernance du religieux en Turquie et au Maroc, à savoir la Présidence des Affaires
Religieuses (Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı) et le Ministère des Habous et des Affaires Islamiques
(MHAI), soutiennent des groupes musulmans en France et en Allemagne par le biais de divers
moyens, allant de l’envoi d’imams à des financements de mosquées.

Comment et pourquoi la Turquie et le Maroc réussissent-ils à gouverner l’islam au-delà de
leurs frontières nationales, et quelles en sont les conséquences pour le développement des
champs religieux musulmans de France et d’Allemagne ? Cette étude conclut qu’à la différence
de la France et de l’Allemagne, la Turquie et le Maroc conçoivent la gouvernance du religieux
comme un domaine distinct de la politique publique, et ce même à l’étranger. Grâce à la
coopération diplomatique et à la convergence d’intérêts interétatiques, ces deux États ont
étendu leur rayonnement dans le champ religieux transnational. Ceci se manifeste par le soutien
d’un modèle d’autorité religieuse légale-rationnelle et une forme d’islam national, afin de
renforcer la position des instances de gouvernance du religieux des États d’origine ainsi que
les frontières ethno-nationales dans les champs religieux musulmans à l’étranger

Mots clés : politiques de diaspora, islam transnational, gouvernance du religieux, politique
étrangère, Turquie, Maroc, France, Allemagne.

4 Benjamin Bruce – “Governing Islam Abroad” – Thèse IEP de Paris – 2015
Acknowledgements
I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to my directrice de thèse, Catherine Wihtol de
Wenden, whose guidance and supervision began during my Master’s degree at Sciences Po
Paris and has continued ever since. Her unflagging support for my research has been essential
in its development over the years and has been of great help every step of the way.
I would also like to express my sincere thanks to all the members of the thesis committee for
their time and insight, and am certain that their appraisal of my work will be of great value to
my current and future research.
I am deeply indebted to the many individuals who agreed to meet with me over the course of
my field research for lengthy interviews. It is thanks to the patience and hospitality of these
diplomats, state officials, and local religious actors that I have been able to gain a broad
understanding of the subjects presented in this thesis. In particular, I would like to thank Ali
Dere, Mehmet Fevzi Hamurcu, and Mehmet Paçacı of the Turkish Diyanet, Najib Binebine of
the Moroccan Embassy in France and Mohammed Rifki of the Moroccan Ministry of Habous
and Islamic Affairs, and Bernard Godard of the French Ministry of the Interior.
The nature of my subject has required a great deal of international travel, during which I have
been very lucky to receive institutional support in numerous countries. In particular, I spent
time as a visiting scholar at the Wissenschaftszentrum für Sozialforschung Berlin in the
department of Ruud Koopmans, the Middle Eastern Technical University thanks to Zana Çitak,
the Institut Français des Études Anatoliennes (IFEA) led by Nora Şeni, and the Centre Jacques
Berque under Baudoin Dupret. My thanks go out to these scholars and to my colleagues at each
institution.
This thesis would not have been possible without a 3-year fellowship (contrat doctoral) from
the French Ministry of Higher Education, which provided me with unparalleled financial
stability and key opportunities for developing my abilities as a university lecturer at Sciences
Po Paris. Thanks to travel grants from the École Doctorale of Sciences Po, I was able to conduct
field research in a number of locations (Strasbourg, Marseille) as well as present my research
findings at academic conferences (Barcelona, Fez, Cambridge). In addition, my field research
received financial aid from the Centre interdisciplinaire d’études et de recherches sur
l’Allemagne (CIERA), the Office franco-allemand pour la Jeunesse (OFAJ), and the IFEA.
Benjamin Bruce – “Governing Islam Abroad” – Thèse IEP de Paris – 2015 5
My research institute in Paris, the Centre d’études et de recherches internationales (CERI) has
provided me with an ideal location to exchange with a broad horizon of scholars and other
doctoral students, including all the regulars of the “Open Space.” I would also like to thank
Christian Lequesne, Riva Kastoryano, and Denis Lacorne for their constant dedication to
contributing to the academic life of centre by organizing conferences and workshops that have
invariably enriched my research. The CERI and its administrative staff have been an important
source of institutional support that has facilitated the myriad practical difficulties that
accompany life as a Ph.D. candidate. In addition, I would also like to thank the entire team of
the Institut des Amériques (IDA), who provided me with a second home during the lengthy
process of writing this thesis.
I owe a special debt to the following colleagues and friends: Marie-Noëlle Carré for her
cartography seminars, Jérôme Pelenc for his timely French corrections, and Guillaume
Grégoire-Sauvé for his revision of the extended French summary. A hearty teşekkürler to Cihan
Özpınar for his help with many of the harder passages of my Turkish interviews and to Cem
Kalpaklıoğlu for proof-reads in Turkish. As well, shukran bezzef to Myriam Aboutaher for her
advice with a number of Arabic expressions. Finally, many thanks to Joyce Valdovinos for her
map-making advice and extensive help with an untold number of details, and to Iris Bruce for
her very thorough proofreading of the entire thesis.
A special mention goes to Victor Hori for having planted the seed for this research in a
Rosemont Buddhist Temple, and to Jocelyne Cesari for giving me the chance to participate as
a research member of the website euro-islam.info. In addition, I would like to express my
gratitude to my fellow members of the Observatoire de recherche interdisciplinaire sur la
Turquie contemporaine (OBTIC), as well as my colleagues in the French national research
agency project “TRANSFAIRE,” coordinated by Marc Aymes, for all their comments and
support.
I would like to thank the Texas Couscous for providing an unshakably upbeat soundtrack to
my years in France, and to my closest friends, Alex Maouche and Agnès Léger, for their
constant support and ready laughter. Above all, vielen Dank an Nicolas Fescharek – ohne Dich
hätte ich’s nicht ausgehalten!
Vielen Dank an die ganze Familie in Deutschland, insbesondere an Opa und Annelie, und an
Oma und Ernst, as well as to my Mexican family, and to all my friends and family back home
6 Benjamin Bruce – “Governing Islam Abroad” – Thèse IEP de Paris – 2015
– especially Pat for the many lengthy phone calls. Many, many, thanks to Papa and Christine,
and Mama and Ilan, without whose support this would not have been possible.
Finally, I would like to express my profound admiration and gratitude towards my wife Joyce,
who has shared every moment of this long journey with me. Her energy, determination,
passion, and laughter have brought joy to even the hardest days – gracias mi vida… ya se hizo
la machaca.

Benjamin Bruce – “Governing Islam Abroad” – Thèse IEP de Paris – 2015 7
Note to Readers
This dissertation uses sources in numerous languages, especially: English, French, German,
Turkish, and Arabic, which comes with certain challenges. The titles of certain organizations
or individuals have at times been altered slightly so as to be rendered more easily in English,
though the names of organizations, political parties, etc. are consistently provided in the
original language when first mentioned in the text. I have been fortunate to receive suggestions
from colleagues and friends concerning the translation of certain terms or passages; however,
unless otherwise indicated, all translations for interviews and written sources are by the author.
For the transliteration of Arabic words, I have followed the guidelines of the International
Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (IJMES). This does not apply to certain words that are
commonly used in English (Ramadan, Eid al-Adha, imam, etc.), or for which widespread
transliterations exist in Francophone texts (dirham, dahir, habous, etc.). In cases where the
Turkish and transliterated Arabic spellings are close, I have opted for the one I consider most
prevalent in English (ulema and not ulama, Ramadan and not Ramazan); however, in some
instances one spelling may be favoured over another, depending on the country under
consideration (cf. Turkish teravih and Arabic tarāwīḥ). In addition, certain terms specific to
the countries studied in this thesis have been left in the original language and are indicated in
italics. This includes administrative units, such as the départements in France or the Länder in
Germany, as well as a small number of institutional titles (préfet). The main currencies
mentioned are the euro, the Moroccan dirham, and the Turkish lira.
The maps and figures in this dissertation have been designed and created by the author using
the following software programmes: Philcarto, Cartes & Données, Inkscape, Adobe Illustrator,
Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. All interviews have been transcribed by the author using
the programme Express Scribe.
The first time an interview is quoted in the text, the name of the interviewee, the date of the
interview, and the location of the interview are all provided. For all subsequent citations, only
the name of the interviewee is indicated (Interview, Name). Roman numerals are used to
differentiate in cases of multiple interviews (Name I, Name II), while anonymous interviews
indicate the solely the institution of the interviewee (French Interior Ministry, etc.). In the latter
case, letters are used to distinguish between individual employees (“X,” “Y,” etc.), and
“personal communication” refers to more informal interactions. See the “list of interviews” for
a complete chronological overview by country.

8 Benjamin Bruce – “Governing Islam Abroad” – Thèse IEP de Paris – 2015
To my parents, and the library they raised me in.
Benjamin Bruce – “Governing Islam Abroad” – Thèse IEP de Paris – 2015 9
Table of Contents
Thesis Abstract ..................................................................................................................... 3
Résumé de la thèse ............................................................................................................... 4
Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. 5
Note to Readers .................................................................................................................... 8
Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... 10
List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... 14
List of Maps ........................................................................................................................ 16
List of Abbreviations ......................................................................................................... 17

Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 25
A - Research Questions and General Approach............................................................... 28
B - Relevant Literature and Main Concepts..................................................................... 30
1) International Relations Theory: The State System and Transnationalism............... 30
2) The Development of “Migration Studies” ............................................................... 33
3) “Islam in the West”: From Multiculturalism to Religious Governance .................. 38
4) Spaces and Fields: Delimiting Transnational Muslims Fields ................................ 46
C - Selection of Case Studies ........................................................................................... 54
1) The “Home States”: Turkey and Morocco .............................................................. 55
2) The “Receiving States”: France and Germany ........................................................ 61
D - Field Research ........................................................................................................... 63
E - Outline of Chapters .................................................................................................... 71

I - The Many Faces of Official Islam in Turkey: Diyanet and Unofficial Islam .......... 75
A - Early Antecedents: From Empire to Republic ........................................................... 75
B - The “Official Islam” of the Early Republic ............................................................... 84
C - Unofficial Islam, Party Politics, and an Evolving Diyanet ........................................ 87
D - Instability and Intervention: Islam as a Tool of National Unity .............................. 103
E - After the Coup: from ANAP to Refah ..................................................................... 109
F - The Rise of AKP and State Religious Governance in Turkey Today ...................... 115
G - Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 129

II - The Moroccan Muslim Field: The Makhzen and Beyond ...................................... 133
A - Islam in the Sherifian Empire: Sultans, Saints, and Habous ................................... 133
B - The Colonial Ministry: The Vizirat of Habous ........................................................ 142
C - Islam and Independence: Salafism, Party Politics and the Resurgent Monarchy .... 148
D - The Reign of Hassan II: Authoritarianism and Religious Legitimacy .................... 156
E - Recasting the State Monopoly: Royal Responses to Islamist Contestation ............. 164
F - The Reform of the Religious Field ........................................................................... 174
10 Benjamin Bruce – “Governing Islam Abroad” – Thèse IEP de Paris – 2015