Ambiguous Secularism: Islam, Laicite and the State in Niger

In: Civilisations: d'anthropologie et de sciences humaines, Band 58, Heft 2, S. 41-58

Abstract

In the early 1990s, democratization in Niger meant a political reform detached from the military rule, but also safe from religious influence. The adoption of the principle of a radical secularism (laicite) sought, first, the autonomy of the political sphere from the religious one, and second, the submission of religious authority to the political one. The consecration of this principle led to the criticism of Muslim public actors who argued that such a principle was violating the religious identity of Niger's society. This paper discusses the difficulty to separate the realm of politics from that of religion as Islamic organizations and Muslim actors have stepped into the political arena, articulating various religion-inspired discourses and seeking the conversion of Niger's politics to Islam. Nowadays, this activism led to a rearrangement of the state's position in relation to religiosity and its role in the public domain. This case of ambiguous secularism, I suggest, might be one of a reinterpretation not only of secularism, but of democratization itself. Adapted from the source document.