Depuis le début des années 1990, les gouvernements britanniques et français ont encouragé la création d’organisations musulmanes. Cependant, près de vingt ans après la création en 1997 du Conseil musulman de Grande-Bretagne (MCB) du rôle de plus proche allié musulman du gouvernement et de porte-parole des communautés, la question de la représentation musulmane n’est toujours pas réglée. En France, le parcours du Conseil français du culte musulman (CFCM) créé par le gouvernement en 2003 offre certains parallèles avec l’histoire du MCB: affaibli par les luttes intestines de ses membres, celui-ci a finalement échoué à réaliser l'unité organisationnelle. Dans ma thèse, je compare ces deux histoires singulières et j’étudie les facteurs qui ont entraîné le déclin de ces conseils nationaux. Je démontre en m’appuyant sur des rapports gouvernementaux, des déclarations officielles, des articles de presse et le témoignage des principaux acteurs de la création de ces organismes, qu'ils ont parfois pu jouer un rôle clé dans certaines étapes de l’histoire des mobilisations des musulmans dans les deux pays. Cependant, la légitimité des organisations cultuelles et leur capacité à répondre aux besoins des musulmans ont été remis en question dans le contexte de l’après 11 septembre 2001. Les conseils nationaux ont ainsi cédé la place à de nouveaux types de mobilisation politique. Une multitude d'organisations musulmanes « progressistes » mettant l'accent sur la cohésion sociale, le dialogue interreligieux ou la participation civique a ainsi vu le jour. Ces nouveaux acteurs locaux, en se fixant de nouveaux objectifs plus généraux et ouverts que les besoins particuliers des seuls musulmans aident à la construction de nouvelles identités musulmanes. Ils s'efforcent de transformer l'image de “communautés” repliées sur elles-mêmes en un groupe de citoyens dynamiques tournés vers les autres. / Successive British and French governments have encouraged the formation of bodies claiming to speak for Muslims since the early 1990s. However, nearly two decades after the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) was created in 1997, the issue of Muslim representation is still pending. In France, the trajectory of the government-backed the Conseil français du culte musulman (CFCM) created in 2003 is parallel in some respects: weakened by the members’ infighting, it finally failed to achieve organisational unity.In my dissertation, I draw parallels between the two cases and consider the reasons which led to the decline of these national ‘representative’ bodies. Using government reports, official statements, press articles and personal accounts of the individuals involved in their inception, I argue that they played a significant role in the early stages of Muslim mobilisation. However, once their legitimacy and ability to cater for Muslim communities in the new post-9/11 context was called into question, the national councils gave way to new types of Muslim political mobilisation.As a result, a multitude of “progressive” Muslim organisations focusing on social cohesion, interfaith outreach, civic participation and social welfare emerged. By shifting their objectives from accommodating the needs of the Muslim communities to social cohesion as a whole, these new local actors not only help build new Muslim identities but also strive to transform the image of Muslims from an inward-looking community to outward-looking dynamic citizens.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil (Religion and Theology) / South African debates on food security address a wide range of issues related to the production, the distribution and the consumption of food in the context of deep concerns over the impact of poverty, unemployment and inequality. One aspect of such debates is on the need for nutritious food amidst hunger, malnutrition, obesity and the prevalence of diabetes. This study will investigate the Islamic theological injunctions and guidelines that govern the production, the different facets of distribution and the consumption of food in Muslim communities. There are numerous theological injunctions from the Quran and prophetic traditions (?ad?th) guiding the Muslim community in relation to food security. These include injunctions around the need to provide nutritious food. The study will assess the programmes of five Muslim faith-based organisations in the Cape Town Metropolitan Area, working in the field of food security and more specifically, feeding schemes. The food programmes of these organisations will be described, analysed and assessed in order to establish whether, and to what extent, the Islamic injunctions on nutrition are implemented, given various constraints. This will require attention to the policies, the strategies and the practices associated with such feeding schemes.

Inspired by the increasingly high visibility of British Muslim NGOs (BMNGOs), by the lack of research on their discourses and by the growing salience of frames theory within the mainstream NGO sector, this thesis offers a significant and original contribution by exploring, describing, and analysing the discourse of two BMNGOs carefully selected as case studies: Islamic Relief (IR) and MADE (Muslim Action for Development and the Environment). The primary aim of the thesis is empirical, driven by the research question: ‘what frames seem to be at work in the discourse of BMNGOs?’ Through an in-depth analysis of a range of public documents produced by the two case studies (e.g. annual reports and websites), the thesis identifies and analyses the main frames used by IR and MADE to articulate three key aspects of their discourses: i) organisational identity; ii) mobilisation efforts; and iii) conceptualisations of their supporter base. Guided by this overarching research question, the thesis offers an original and interdisciplinary insight into the nuances of the case studies’ meaning systems, thereby showing their complexities and resonance with multiple narratives and ideational repertoires. The emerging ‘thick descriptions’ of IR and MADE represent, in and of themselves, the main results of the study, which is intended to enable readers from different disciplinary backgrounds to gain a nuanced insight into BMNGOs’ discourses. At a secondary level, the thesis also pursues the theoretical aim to start exploring how the frames identified in the study inform the two research sub-questions: ‘how to think about BMNGOs?’ and ‘how to think about British Muslim civic engagement?’ Several observations are put forward in this regard. Taken together, these suggest that IR can be understood as a faith-based organisation that simultaneously draws on a range of heritages and increasingly offers opportunities for active citizenship among British Muslims within the framework of what is broadly characterizable as a ‘NGO-led order’. On the other hand, the thesis suggests that MADE can be understood as an exemplar of the current era of ‘loose activist networks’, more precisely as a ‘Muslim lifestyle’ social movement organisation that promotes among British Muslims a multifaceted form of civic engagement inspired by an Islamic ethical framework.