Imaginary Socialization

Imaginary socialization refers to the gap between the perception of an identity that makes no concessions and the leeway for interpretation permitted by authorized clerics. It relates more generally to the part of reciprocal construction between the subject and the object. The manner in which the former constructs, and is constructed by, the latter is the source of a vision of the world and the different positions that derive from it. Imaginary socialization echoes the polysemy of religious concepts but also the different ways of apprehending the social space, with a single one perduring in this socialization in order to render coherent the acts and positions taken by practicants.

Filtered Socialization

This chapter deals with how French Salafists come to embrace their conception of Islam. Three major structural factors are considered: socialization in a suburb, an area marginalized geographically and socially; coming from a certain type of immigrant family; belonging to marginalized youth. This chapter also addresses how Salafism echoes a generational rebellion against the rest of the society. Salafism turns out to be to a large extent the religious way of reacting a society that is seen as rejecting Muslims, especially the young generations. Besides, this chapter also sheds light on the much debated question of converts by explaining the reasons why Islam is positively regarded by some people who were not in a Muslim family.

Postmodern Socialization

Fundamentally, the socialization in Daʾwa Salafiyya is less about an attempt to cut oneself off from the world than about a religious and puritan way of acting as though one were living in the “time of the tribes.” United by spiritual and moral affinities that let them consider themselves separate, Salafists embody the superiority of the affinity paradigm in a society with which they negotiate a contractual relationship. There is no recognition of the religious engagement that legitimizes the modern era and its social, political, or cultural avatars, such as the nation, secularism, citizenship, democracy, individualism, and liberalism, or, especially, the polytheism of values. It is no surprise that the practicant feels ill at ease with them. He finds in his fundamentalist configuration all he needs for leading his life, being focused on his coreligionists and not on the state or the nation.

Immunological Socialization

This chapter sheds light on how Salafists try to distance themselves from the rest of French society and with what they see as un-Islamic. Through an internal hijra (religious salutary migration), they attempt to build a countersociety based on respect for pure religious norms. Through an external hijra, they leave France and the West in order to settle in an Islamic society: Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, or elsewhere. There are two types of Hijra. One that is temporary and allows to get familiar with a Muslim society for a relatively short amount of time. One that is designed to be forever entitling a spiritual and social rebirth in a Muslim country.

Pyramidal Socialization

This chapter highlights how French Salafists try to promote a type of relationship with the rest of the society that is built upon their feeling that they are the elect. This is not so much a cult that Salafists try to identify with as a sort of religious aristocracy in which they consider themselves superior to other Muslims and, of course, non-Muslims. By embracing a certain conception of politics, as well as by appealing to certain economic and cultural customs, habits, and norms, Salafists have been building a countersociety. It may seem that they therefore wish to split from the rest of the society, but they are actually promoting another type of socialization, one built upon the desire to appear as a sort of cast.

Genealogical Socialization

Genealogical socialization is the process by which the actor acquires an identity derived from appropriating a different heritage and which determines a concept of the world and of life that will provide an exclusive frame for thought and action. It is genealogical because the process inserts itself into a sacred temporality with which every believing Muslim identifies, being sincere and strong enough to live with whatever ruptures with his environment he needs to make while seeking to reproduce the habitus of Islam’s first believers. It is linked to the establishment of a symbolic lineage between the time when this religion appeared and modern times, when a minute portion of believers show themselves to be faithful to the demands of the true faith.