Country: France

About

The subject of Fatiha’s research is centered on the Muslim world and evangelical missionary activity. Deploying all over the world their missionary activity, the Pentecostal churches aim at spreading the “Gospel” ie the “Good News” among people; if these organizations obtain such a big success in Africa and South America, their missionary activity in the Muslim world face many obstacles.

Pentecostalism emphasizes the gift of the Holy Spirit, healing, all very “emotional” dimensions. In societies where the degree of conflict in interpersonal relations is very high, exacerbated by very precarious conditions of life and the impoverishment of a large part of middle classes, this warm, emotional aspect which gives the feeling of a community of heart, can win people over.

Before beginning a PhD in political sociology with a specialization in religion, she was a journalist with expertise in religious issues and geopolitics. She was an activist among the main French anti-racism organization, called MRAP (Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Among Peoples). She is the president of the local committee of the 19th Arrondissement. In this role, she organizes conferences around racial discrimination issues. The latest conferences she facilitated include one in Blois, France in collaboration with the Jewish Historian Esther Benbassa which dealt with communitarism and challenges religious minorities face in the Western World (in the context of the Rendez vous de l’Histoire (“meetings with History”)) - an annual series of conferences in Blois attended by researchers, journalists, sociologists and state officials, a series of conferences intended to foster harmonious dialogue between religions at the Institute of the Arab World and a debate after the movie screening of Yamina Benguigui ” Le plafond de verre / les defricheurs” which focused on racial discrimination in the workplace. She led this debate with the participation of Labor Inspectors and Union Leaders who addressed the racial discrimination that minorities face.

Her research topic for her master focused on religious minorities and the strategies they develop to address the dominant society, from inward-looking to full acceptance of dominant values. She inspired herself from the Chicago’s Sociology. She also participated in extensive research conducted in Europe about Muslims in the European Union and the condition of their citizenship.

All her former experiences -in professional activities and, in a similar vein, as far as the fraternities in which she has been active are concerned- were linked to this question: the mean to promote peacefulness and harmonious dialogue between communities, and this study will help her to deepen her reflexion regarding this issue.

Born in Vierzon, France and educated in France, she acquired a graduate degree in sociology in Ehess (Ecole des Hautes études en sciences sociales). She is finishing a PhD in Ehess as well as in Ephe-La Sorbonne University in Paris.