3The first section, divided into three historical sequences (1980–2014, 2014–2020, and 2020–2025), sheds light on the genesis of this “Muslim problem” by studying the successive public commissions set up to address issues relating to immigrant populations and their descendants of the Muslim faith. First from a liberal perspective, various stakeholders—civil servants, academics, representatives of civil society—examined the social transformations linked to the long-term settlement of a postcolonial workforce initially intended to be temporary. This situation required a “redefinition of the contours of national belonging” (p. 22), and introduced the concept of a “Muslim problem,” soon associated with the idea that Islam and the Republic were incompatible. Islam was considered an “eternal remnant of European modernity” (p. 23), which implied that the assimilation of Muslim populations required them to abandon practices viewed as archaic. Under the liberal perspective that dominated at the time (1980–2014), concepts of national identity, assimilation, integration, and radicalization were approached from the angle of “thwarted integration.” For several decades, this approach shaped a “supposedly emancipatory” social philosophy, which, in reality, imposed the obligation on these populations to renounce their “religious atavism” (p. 24), a mandatory condition for their integration.

5This detailed overview of the different “historical sequences” shows the continuity between liberal and conservative perspectives on the “Muslim problem,” which the author lays bare to reveal their limits. By tracing how they were constructed in academia, politics, and the media, Hamza Esmili reveals the verticalized relationship with Islam, its actors, and its spaces that has shaped intellectual and political discourse and has focused successively on national identity (1980), assimilation and integration (1990), radicalization (2010), separatism (2020) and, finally, Islamist entryism (2025). The strength of his contribution lies in clearly and methodically presenting his critique of the proponents of a Muslim problem. He does not merely report the facts; he also discusses their construction, reveals their arbitrary nature, and exposes their methodological biases. His scientific and critical stance makes the first three chapters a challenging but stimulating read.

6Building on the analysis developed in the first three chapters, Hamza Esmili examines in the second section of the book how “a social group becomes a unified body during a period of profound change and transformation” (p. 75). Developing a sociogenesis of immigration, he analyzes the “bonds of loyalty, solidarity, and filiation” (p. 71) of postcolonial immigrants and their descendants. According to Esmili, Muslim identity has evolved in different regions of France in response to a migratory, economic, and political context marked by the increasing criminalization of Islamic practices, in which the Muslim question is perceived and analyzed as a “test of modernity.” Liberal interpretations consider that traditional Islam, ritualized around practices and beliefs considered “primitive,” is doomed to disappear under the effects of integration and assimilation. Esmili’s analyses demonstrate, on the contrary, that non-modern elements persist at the very heart of modernity, and he explains that these elements are neither “atavisms” nor the expression of pre-modern remnants on the verge of extinction. Instead, he exposes the limits of liberalism: far from a positivist vision in which human reason presupposes the autonomy of individuals freed from the grip of political and religious powers, religious reaffiliations in French cités show the perseverance and transformation of affiliations that propose and reflect new conceptions of life in society. According to Esmili, these religious reaffiliations allow individuals to feel at one with “their own people” while questioning the possibility of existing “as a Muslim” in society at large (p. 81).

7While the phenomenon of postcolonial migration has led public authorities to produce more laws, those most affected have mainly sought to exist and coexist within the spaces assigned to them. According to Esmili, these localized dynamics have produced a “religious reaffiliation” that has contributed to social bonding. Throughout the book, the author equally challenges naturalist and constructivist positions, both of which tend to ignore the social factors behind filial bonds in working-class neighborhoods. Through their local roots and “shared experience of precariousness,” postcolonial immigrants and their children forge lasting bonds, notably through the construction of mosques. Esmili points out that these mosques result from the social engagement of the most marginalized groups and reflect their attempt to reclaim their traditions outside state control, despite the awareness that they are the state’s primary targets.

10Finally, Esmili expertly addresses the “outbreak of violence” (p. 101) committed in the name of Islam, which he considers an extension of the “Muslim problem.” Rejecting liberal, conservative, and conspiracy theories (p. 102), he calls for a scientifically rigorous analysis of the “socio-historical link between religious violence and reinvestment of the Islamic tradition” (p. 105). Based on a Durkheimian perspective of the “pathological side” of religion (p. 102), he distinguishes two expressions: the “geopolitical murder” and the “antisemitic crime.” The first, represented by suicide attacks, occurs at the overlap of social frustration, religious reaffiliation, and international conflicts (such as the Syrian war), that fuel a “national pathology” reappropriated and instrumentalized by an authoritarian state, in this case the Islamic State. The second, a product of national reification, is rooted in the European history of anti-Judaism, where State Islamophobia and philosemitism stoke up intra-national resentment, pushing one minority to rise up against another. Both aspects reveal modern expressions of “theologico-political violence” produced by national societies and socializations (p. 114).

11In the conclusion, the epigraph of a poem by the Palestinian Mahmoud Darwich sheds light on the chronology of a Muslim obsession inherited from the colonial past. However, both the colonial period and the postcolonial situation remain underdeveloped in this book. While the notions of Islamophobia and Native Regime arise occasionally, the colonial resurgence is only touched upon. Hamza Esmili accurately connects distinct “historical sequences,” without, however, explaining the reasons that led him to begin his analysis in the 1980s. The colonial question thus remains a blind spot in his book and the following questions arise when reading it: what do historians say about the colonial management of the “Muslim problem” of indigenous peoples? To what extent can colonial analyses of Muslim populations and their descendants be intersected with anthropological ones? These questions call for an application of his theory to previous periods in order to enrich the sociogenesis of a French obsession already established by the Native Regime. Although implicit, the colonial dimension is foundational to the way Muslim populations are perceived, well beyond the Maghreb on which the author focuses his analysis.

12Finally, Hamza Esmili points out that Islamophobia, “before being a policy, is a social evil” (p. 119) and all its ramifications need to be examined within specific socio-historical realities. When the Muslim question is presented as a “problem,” it takes on a singular dimension that Esmili seeks to understand scientifically through the empirical study of the collective experiences of a sub-group that fully belongs to society as a whole. From the first page to the last, the author shows how the treatment of the Muslim question concerns the entire French society. In this sense, immigrants and their descendants, as full citizens, call for a fresh perspective on the subject that breaks from how it has been addressed so far in the social sciences and public policies. In this respect, the book stands out in the scientific literature for its activist stance that goes beyond a simple observation of facts. The author proposes both a rigorous critique and a shift in the social sciences and humanities, away from liberal and conservative positions, to focus on the Muslim question rather than the Muslim “problem.”