Book Review of Laurence and Vaisse on Oumma.com, August 2010
A book review of Integrér l’Islam was published on Oumma.com. Click here to read the review.
Comparative Politics & State-Religion Relations in Modern Europe
Comparative Politics & State-Religion Relations in Modern Europe
A book review of Integrér l’Islam was published on Oumma.com. Click here to read the review.
An abridged version of the book chapter from Europe 2030 (ed. Daniel Benjamin, Brookings Press, 2010) was published in Boston College Magazine. Click here to read the article in full.
Jonathan appeared on the Diane Rehm Show (WAMU / NPR) to discuss the banning of facial veils in France. Click here to listen.
A discussion of Europe 2030 with José Cutileiro, Carlos Gaspar, Rui Machete and José Manuel Durão Barroso at the Luso-American Development Foundation on April 23, 2010. Remarks available for download here and photos here.
On Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit to the United States (March 29, 2010). Click here for the full text.
“Islam and National Identity in France,” (with Justin Vaïsse) Consulat Général de France à New York, January 27, 2010. See photos here.
Jonathan moderated a public panel on “Coordinated Counter-Terrorism Policy” at the Brookings Institution on Tuesday, December 15 (audio available here; transcript is here), and co-organized an experts workshop later that day. Click here to see details. The workshop agenda can be viewed here.
Jonathan was interviewed for an article about the anti-Minaret referendum in Switzerland in The Economist:
[...] But the right-wing Swiss People’s Party struck a chord by telling voters that there was still a binary choice: either they would be subjected to misogynism and cruel punishments in the name of Islam, or else their existing culture, based on liberal Christianity, would prevail. Minarets were shown as a menacing force: on posters, dark shapes (resembling both minarets and missiles) rose from a Swiss flag.
The resonance of such tactics may embarrass French and German politicians, both on the centre-left and the centre-right, who have predicted that Muslims will soon be integrated as their fellow citizens get used to them, and as their ties with homelands like Turkey and Morocco weaken. In the view of Jonathan Laurence, a professor at Boston College, the vote may be seen as a setback for strategies based on bringing Islam into the European mainstream by encouraging Muslims to “emerge from the basement” and build more visible places of worship. [...]
CLICK HERE to read the full article.
Jonathan was interviewed for an article about British Foreign Minister David Miliband in Moment Magazine. Click here to read the piece.
Jonathan was quoted in an article about Tariq Ramadan in Maclean’s Magazine (Canada). Click here to read the piece.
Un’Italia più forte nel mondoLaurence spoke on a public panel in Rome on September 29 with the Italian opposition leader Pier Luigi Bersani. A video of the event can be viewed on-line here (debate begins around minute 16:00). The title of the session was “A Stronger Italy in the World: Responding to the Global Crisis.” Click for poster here .
On October 8-9, Laurence participated in the workshop organized by the Fondazione Magna Carta on “The New Transatlantic Relations,” held at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He was interviewed about President Obama and transatlantic relations in the studio of RAI News 24 on the “Dentro la notizia” program on September 29 and October 12, and by Red TV (Italy) on October 10, as well as by L’occidentale (read interview here) on October 12.
Jonathan discussed Yale Press’s decision to omit illustrations from Jytte Klausen’s book on the Danish Cartoon controversy with the London Times.
Jonathan was interviewed for an article about President Obama’s popularity and the likelihood of health care reform in the French newspaper Ouest France.
Jonathan was interviewed in La Repubblica about Prime Minister Berlusconi’s visit to Washington in June. Click here to read the interview.
Jonathan was interviewed about President Obama’s Cairo speech on Radio France in June. Click here to listen to excerpts from the interview.
Book review of Integrating Islam: political and cultural challenges in contemporary France (Brookings Press 2006):
“The successes and failures of cultural integration [are] given an authoritative and optimistic reading by Jonathan Laurence and Justin Vaisse in Integrating Islam … Laurence and Vaisse give us a carefully conducted study of the integration of Muslims into French society, solidly based on statistics and poll results. They see integration wisely as a double process, bringing change to the French population as well as to immigrants… The authors are particularly interesting on French efforts to promote a Western Islam limited to the private sphere.”
- Robert O. Paxton, New York Review of Books, April 9, 2009
Click here to read the review
Jonathan was interviewed on France 3’s evening news after the Inaugural speech; earlier in January he spoke on French RTL radio about Obama’s cabinet selection.
Jonathan commented on the implications of the Clinton Global Initiative donor list for Senator Clinton’s appointment as Secretary of State in Libération:
«L’accord avec l’équipe de transition était au départ très clair»,affirme Jonathan Laurence, professeur de sciences politiques à l’université de Boston College. Selon lui, «ce sont les activités futures de la fondation Clinton qui importent, pour éviter toute possibilité de conflits d’intérêts». Il estime, par ailleurs, que la plupart des anciens contributeurs étaient déjà connus et que cela n’avait pas empêché Obama de désigner son ancienne rivale à l’investiture démocrate. D’autant que Bill Clinton n’a pas rechigné à jouer le jeu, en promettant de se plier aux règles drastiques fixées par l’équipe de transition.
Click here to read the article.
Jonathan’s study on new foreign policy leaders in Italy was featured by the Il Velino news agency.
“…Possono andare a Bruxelles o a Strasburgo, oppure bussare ad altre istituzioni internazionali, ma se sono ‘animali politici’ – nota Laurence – con ogni probabilità vorranno fare carriera in Italia. E la lista d’attesa è lunga! …”
Click here to read the article.
Jonathan discussed the advantages of local versus national state-Islam consultations with The Economist:
“… This bears out an argument made by Jonathan Laurence, a professor at Boston College. As he puts it, local pragmatism often works better than high-stakes posturing between governments and “national” Muslim bodies. In the latter case, expectations are too high: governments want to resolve all their worries about security and political stability, while on the Muslim side, there is rivalry between ethnic groups and a compulsion to flex muscles. But Mr Laurence adds that for local deals to work, there has to be some national consensus about the limits of cultural freedom….”
Click here to read article.
Jonathan was interviewed for a profile on Atlantic-Community.org in November 2008.
“…It doesn’t make sense to have a Leitkultur-slugfest every time a Muslim community wants to build a mosque. So many European countries have proud traditions of religious diversity (or the post-war rehabilitation thereof), which are demeaned by local politicians who seek votes by playing “six degrees of separation to Yusuf al-Qaradawi” with any Muslim leader bearing a mosque blueprint…”
Click here to read the article
“The Challenges of Multiculturalism in Advanced Democracies”
by Robert Rohrschneider, Will Kymlicka and Jonathan Laurence
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 6, Issue 04, December 2008, pp 801-810
Click Here to read the article
Jonathan contributed a few lines on “Obama 2008: 26 idées à importer” (26 ideas worth borrowing) to the Nonfiction’s Nov. 26 issue.
“…Obama a pu assumer ses racines africaines tout en s’affirmant patriote. Il a su s’afficher sous des drapeaux américains pour désarmer ses adversaires, souligner le rôle qu’ont joué le racisme et la discrimination aux États-Unis, sans pathos…”
Click here to read the article.
On Election Day, Jonathan was interviewed on Radio Suisse Romande. On Wednesday, November 5, he appeared as a guest on the television programs C dans l’air (France 5) and on RTBF/TV-5 Monde.
Jonathan was asked to comment on the third presidential debate for Radio France Info. Click here to listen.
Book Reviews of Integrating Islam: Political and Religious Challenges in Contemporary FranceClick here to purchase book: Integrating Islam: Political And Religious Challenges in Contemporary France
Robert O. Paxton, New York Review of Books, April 2009: “The successes and failures of cultural integration [are] given an authoritative and optimistic reading by Jonathan Laurence and Justin Vaisse in Integrating Islam … Laurence and Vaisse give us a carefully conducted study of the integration of Muslims into French society, solidly based on statistics and poll results. They see integration wisely as a double process, bringing change to the French population as well as to immigrants… The authors are particularly interesting on French efforts to promote a Western Islam limited to the private sphere.”
Jytte Klausen, The Journal of Religion, April 2009: “Laurence and Vaisse give an encyclopedic assessment of French policies toward the country’s Muslim minority and the social, economic, and political facts of integration…. One imagines the book lying on the desks of graduate students and journalists who need a primer on the recent history and the facts. If so, we should all be happy.”
Alec Hargreaves, French Politics, Culture and Society, Winter 2008: “This is by far the most comprehensive and best documented book available in English on the Muslim population in France. It works systematically through the now sizeable body of research and other evidence available on Muslims in France and finds that they are working with the grain of French society far more than is often thought. In chapter after chapter, we see that, contrary to widespread myths about the alleged incompatibility of Islam and French republican values, the vast majority of Islamic organizations and individual Muslims in France seek equality within the Republic on the basis of its constitutional principles, including that of laïcité, rather than through shariah-based separatism. ”
Matthew Kaminski, Wall Street Journal, September 2006: “These statistics [from the Pew Center] came to light after ‘Integrating Islam’ went to print, but they confirm the book’s cautious optimism. Messrs. Laurence and Vaisse argue that French Muslims are a diverse and fast-changing group, in many respects moderate. France, for example, saw virtually no public protests against the Muhammad cartoons, in contrast with other European countries.” (reprinted in Corriere della Sera, October 2006)
John Thornhill, Financial Times, September 2006: “The great virtue of Integrating Islam is that it demonstrates how distorted and offensive many of these views are. After examining the everyday reality of the Muslim population in France, the two authors, an American political scientist and a French historian, reach a more complex and optimistic conclusion challenging the “gloomy and alarmist view of France’s (and Europe’s) inevitable ‘Islamisation’.”
Mark Leon Goldberg, The American Prospect, September 2006: “Buy this book [...] I couldn’t recommend it more highly for those wishing to understand the dynamics of Islam and migrant integration in Europe today.”
Farhad Khosrokhavar, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris (From the book jacket): “This book is a must for many reasons. The authors illustrate how Muslims are being integrated into French society and how exclusion and marginality are pushing a few of them into radicalism and terrorism. In a single work it condenses the many sides of the ‘Muslim question’ within France and, in some ways, Europe overall.”
Olivier Roy, CNRS, June 2006 (From the foreword): “This noteworthy book by Laurence and Vaisse leaves behind a theoretical sociology of immigration and refuses to engage in the often fruitless debate on Islam as an abstract concept. The authors rely on solid documentation to study actual Muslims who live in France. Their prudently optimistic conclusions do not fall into the trap of cliché, excessive sympathy or political correctness. By emphasizing the complex phenomena of integration and discrimination, they shed light on the mix of identities and the subtle evolution of identity among French Muslims. In so doing, they also point out the difficulties that many in France have in fully understanding the environment in which they find themselves and the changes taking place around them. Laurence and Vaisse make considerable progress in advancing the debate in France and elsewhere, an accomplishment that deserves acknowledgment.”
Timothy Garton Ash, New York Review of Books, October 2006: “As the authors of an excellent new study of Islam in France point out, most French Muslims are relatively well integrated into French society.”
Stanley Hoffmann, Foreign Affairs, November 2006: “Laurence, a young American political scientist, and Vaísse, a young French historian, have written a well-documented, nuanced, and ultimately optimistic study of French Muslims — a convincing refutation of American clichés about the rise of Islamism in France, the effects of Muslims on French foreign policy, European anti-Semitism, and the incompatibility of Islam and the traditional French model of integration.”
Elizabeth Grimm, Democracy & Society, Fall 2006: “Their work is an important read for anyone trying to understand the complexities of Islamic integration into the European mainstream and an extremely valuable contribution to the field of migration studies.”
Roger Hardy, The New Statesman, January 2007: “This is one of the few books in English that set out, clearly, dispassionately and in detail, what the headscarf affair was all about, what the main French Muslim organisations are (and their affiliations with the wider Muslim world), what the role of influential but controversial figures such as Tariq Ramadan and Yusuf al-Qaradawi has been, and how successive French governments have sought, with great difficulty, to create a national body to serve as a Muslim interlocutor. There are lessons here for Europe as a whole, and it would be salutary to think that a book with a primarily American purpose might teach Europeans a thing or two as well.”
Stephanie Giry, Prospect Magazine, February 2007: “a probing new book on the integration of Muslims in France [...] Laurence and Vaisse tackle well three issues that often alarm foreign observers: the influence of Muslims on French foreign policy, their suspected responsibility for the rise of antisemitism, and the connection between Islam and Islamist terrorism.”
Fokke Obbema, de Volkskrant, February 2007: “hun boek bevat ruim voldoende argumenten om het overheersende beeld van zwartgalligheid te corrigeren.”
Francis Ghilès, Politica Exterior, March 2007: “Jonathan Laurence y Justin Vaisse desarrollan estos asuntos con cierto detenimiento. Creen que identificar a los musulmanes solo por su creencia religiosa es engañoso, sobre todo cuando muchos de ellos no lo hacen. El complejo tapiz de Europa y el islam refleja la situaciòn en países determinados, y tambièn en todo el continente: existe una enorme diversidad sectaria, étnica e ideològica en países como Francia y Reino Unido…La expresiòn acuñada por Jonathan Laurence y Justin Vaisse resume ingeniosamente el desafío: ‘Altercados urbanos en Francia: es Marx, y no Bin Laden.’”
Pavol Szalai, International Issues and Slovak Foreign Policy, March 2007: “In any case, the book remains a pool of powerful arguments against those who would like to see a class-of-civilizations scenario evolve in France and Europe. Laurence and Vaisse undermine them with a carefully calibrated assessment of the situation backed by serious in-depth research. Everyone interested in immigration, European Islam, terrorism, or French politics should read their book.”
Richard Wolin, The Nation, April 2007: “As Olivier Roy comments in his foreword to Jonathan Laurence and Justin Vaisse’s Integrating Islam: ‘All serious studies of the formation of terrorism in Europe show that the process is more likely to be the result of alienation, isolation and generational crisis.’ This conclusion distinctly belies the claims of scaremongering jeremiads like Bruce Bawer’s While Europe Slept and French author Emmanuel Brenner’s The Lost Territories of the Republic, which misleadingly contend that, à la Bernard Lewis, Europe is undergoing a process of ‘reverse colonization.’”
David Cleeton, Modern & Contemporary France, Spring 2007: “Together [Laurence and Vaisse] have produced a clear and concise investigation of the French social landscape [...] The power of their analysis resides in the facts presented and the documentation they explore to set the record straight concerning the basic underlying structural characteristics of the Muslim population in contemporary France.”
William Safran, Choice, April 2007: “This excellent books deals with the challenges posed in France by the presence of several million Muslims. It covers virtually everything one would want to know about the subject [...] Highly recommended.”
Ishseminal, Daily Kos, June 2007: “Many of these arguments are carefully and convincingly refuted in ‘Integrating Islam‘ by Jonathan Laurence and Justin Vaisse, a painstakingly researched inquiry into the question of Muslim integration in France that was published just last year. Laurence, an American, and Vaisse, a Frenchman, team up to pore through virtually every survey and poll that has been done in recent years concerning views of French Muslims and non-Muslims on various issues related to Muslim life in France: politics, society, education, etc. Laurence and Vaisse provide detailed portraits of major French Muslim leaders and organizations, and track the state’s successes and failures in dealing with the Muslim community.”
Shereen El Fiki, International Affairs, July 2007: “A good first step, however, is understanding the role of Islam in the challenges facing French Muslims. And ‘Integrating Islam’ by political scientist Jonathan Laurence and historian Justin Vaisse is an excellent guide to this complex journey [...] The authors’ exhaustive research, clear analysis and sensible—indeed optimistic— conclusions are just as valuable to readers in Europe and further afield.”
Aslim Taslam, July 2007: “Un ouvrage qui est paru en mars 2007 et qui n’a pas, à mon goût, assez été plébiscité. La référence à des données sociologiques, à des événements politiques majeurs de l’histoire de l’islam de France, à l’aide de grilles statistiques judicieuses, ainsi que des enquêtes de terrain diversifiées, en font « le meilleur livre de synthèse existant » selon Olivier Roy.”
Emmanuel Dupuy, Defense Nationale et Securite Collective, August 2007: “[Un] riche ouvrage qui a l’immense avantage de condenser tous les aspects de la question musulmane en France, remettant ainsi en cause nombre d’ideés reçues quant à la montée de l’islamisme, l’antisémitisme et l’incompatibilité de l’islam avec le modèle républicain français, notamment la laïcité.”
Joan Wallach Scott, Perspectives on Politics, November 2007: “Full of details that enable readers to grasp the import of what is happening. Without sacrificing clarity, they insist on complexity, introducing readers in a measured, dispassionate way to the intricacies of French politics, political theory, and history.”
Ahmet T. Kuru, Contemporary Islam, January 2008: “Integrating Islam is a must read for those who study Muslims in France. It contains very rich and updated data about Muslims’ demography, organizational capacity, and political influence in France.”
The Italian news agency ANSA featured a summary of Jonathan’s recent article on Italian foreign policy. Click here to read the ANSA article.
Jonathan Laurence and Justin Vaisse wrote an op-ed on the future of the Conseil français du culte musulman (CFCM) in Le Monde on June 7, 2008. Click here to read.
Jonathan was interviewed for an article on the crisis of the Conseil français du culte musulman. Click here to read in French. Or click here for English version.
“Choice magazine selected Integrating Islam as an Outstanding Academic Title this year.
About the OAT: Choice’s Outstanding Academic Title list includes 646 books and electronic resources chosen by the Choice editorial staff from among the 7,094 titles reviewed by Choice during the past year. Works are chosen based on their excellence in scholarship and presentation and the significance of their contribution to the field. Comprising just over 9% of the titles reviewed by Choice during the past year, and less than 3% of the more than 25,000 titles submitted to Choice during this same period, Outstanding Academic Titles are truly the best of the best.
About Choice: Published by the American Library Association, Choice is one of the premier sources for reviews of academic books, electronic media, and Internet resources of interest to those in higher education. More than 35,000 librarians, faculty, and key decisionmakers rely on Choice magazine for collection development and scholarly research. Choice reaches almost every undergraduate college and university library in the United States.
The Outstanding Academic Title list appears in the January 2008 issue.”
Laurence was interviewed for an article on “Radical Islam in Europe” in the November 2007 issue of Congressional Quarterly – Global Researcher.
Jonathan Laurence spoke with Alex Cohen on Day to Day about three men detained in a terrorism investigation in Germany.
Laurence and Vaisse’s _Integrating Islam_ was cited in three articles by Simon Kuper about Islam in Europe.Click here for article 1Click here for article 2Click here for article 3
“Managing Transnational Religion: Muslims and the State in Western Europe (1974-2004)” [Harvard government department, 2006] was awarded the 2006 Harold D. Lasswell prize for the best dissertation in the field of public policy in 2004 or 2005 by the American Political Science Association.
Integrer l’Islam was cited in an article on the European Council for Fatwa and Research.
Click here to read the article.
Laurence comments on French presidential elections in The American Prospect.Click here to read the article.
Laurence interviewed about “Eurabia” in Frontpage magazine.
Click here to read the full interview.
A number of newspapers and media covered the release of Jonathan’s report for the International Crisis Group. Click below to read coverage in: Frankfurter Rundschau ;Tagesspiegel ; Deutsche Welle ;Islamische Zeitung;Daily Times (Pakistan) ;Migration und Bevölkerung;Islam.de;Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger; Philadelphia Inquirer .
Click here to read Laurence’s interview about Islam in Germany with Deutsche Welle.
Laurence and Vaisse’s Integrating Islam cited in an article on Islam, America and Europe.
Click here to read the article.
Laurence was quoted in an article about Ayan Hirsi Ali.
Click here to read the article
Jonathan was interviewed for a story about US-Italy relations after the election of Romano Prodi in Spring 2006. Click here to read the article.
Insider News – Italy featured a summary of Jonathan’s article about State-Islam relations in Italy. Click here to read the news article.
Associated Press.com – Italy featured a summary of Jonathan’s article about US-Italy relations and the Iraq war. Click here to read the AP.com article.
