Youness ABOUALI

Thesis project

This research addresses the issue of training Muslim religious leaders in France in the context of the fight against radicalization, and the roles they can play in mosques, neighborhoods and prisons to prevent excesses and ensure peaceful, tolerant coexistence between different belief systems. Our methodological approach is based on a combination of ethnographic and clinical research methods:

• Draw up an inventory of the various public and private schemes currently contributing to this training.
• Investigate the training offered to Muslim religious leaders in France (chaplains, imams), through periods of immersion and accompaniment in the various training schemes, while relying on semi-directive and non-directive interviews, participant observation and data collection by logbook or life story.
• Take stock of the civil and civic training offered by French universities on the history of religions, secularism and the religious phenomenon.