<i>Ex-musulmans</i> and <i>musulmans laïques</i> in contemporary French literature and film

Although several public apostates from Islam are well known in France, most not French. More attention is granted to French musulmans laïques: practicing Muslims who underline their support for a contemporary model of laïcité holding that religious practices should be restricted the private sphere. Olivier Arnaubec’s novel 2023. Le mur (2015), Xavier Durringer’s film Ne m’abandonne pas (2016), and Zahwa Djennad’s Tabou. Confession d’un jeune de banlieue (2013) reflect this, each deploying musulman laïque protagonists communicate divergent visions Islam, while mentioning figure apostate at passing. This may because secular Muslim can easily appropriated creator work’s differing vision place society. Musulman help further racist rejection populations racialized as “Muslim”; more insidious form Islamophobia associated with political mainstream seen film; portrayal Islamic practice already wholly without needing “assimilation.” article argues ex-Muslim harder appropriate any these ends, difficulty which helps explain discrepancy prominence between France.