ABSTRACT
Politicians, media commentators and writers who want to show that Muslims can, and want to, integrate into French society explain the obstacles they encounter by racism, racism against Arabs, and downplay role of Islam in Muslims' lives. Representations of Muslims in French literature are quite numerous and form a useful source of reflexion as to the place of Muslims in French society. Literature by contrast with media or research affords individual voices to express their experiences of Muslimness' and provides vital specificity and insight into intricacies of the development within Muslim communities in Europe'. Ethnically Arabic, ignorant of his Muslim heritage, maddened by a feeling of rejection, the character' linguistic dexterity points to readers' posited inability to comprehend Islamic, North African and Beur cultural references'. The French Muslim population comes from geographical areas different from other European Muslims, such as France's ex-colonies in North-Africa, and, to a lesser extent, Sub-Saharan Africa, and is therefore closely bound up with history.
