Axe 3 seminar: Claire de Galembert and Benjamin Farhat, "Les géométries variables de l'aumônerie musulmane" (The variable geometries of Muslim chaplaincy)

Thursday 20 February 2025 | 14h-17h | EPS (research library)

Axis 3 receives Claire de Galembert and Benjamin Farhat for a presentation on the collective work The variable geometries of Muslim chaplaincy. Inter-institutional comparison: prison, army, hospital (Presses universitaires d'Aix-Marseille, 2024).

Hybrid format: contact lucas.faure94@hotmail.fr

Book summary:

Over the last thirty years, the Muslim religion has taken on the role of chaplain, a function that is foreign to it. Men and women are taking on this role, which the law of separation made a condition of the free exercise of religion in closed institutions. The emergence and spread of Muslim chaplaincies has even given new relevance to this little-known religious ministry. Concerns about radicalisation in prisons have given rise to a political desire to improve the status of prison chaplains, who are less attractive than their military or hospital counterparts. The question of harmonising the status of prison chaplains has been raised for nearly ten years. However, at this stage, the only substantial step forward is the requirement for all paid chaplains to have civil and civic training.

If Muslim chaplaincy is being invented, it is doing so in different ways within the three institutions concerned: prisons, the military and hospitals. Its institutionalisation is shaped by the idiosyncrasies of each institution. This book brings together the expertise of two sociologists, a legal expert and a political scientist.

The first inter-institutional comparative study of chaplaincy, the book shows how Muslims appropriate this institution of Christian origin, and provides information on the backgrounds and origins of those involved in chaplaincy. It provides an understanding of this little-known reality and reveals a secularism that is less uniform than might be expected.