The Muslim immigration and institutionalized Islam: the figure of the immigrant imams

Abstract

This article raises a generic reflection about Islam in immigration and a particular analysis of the role that the muslim religious staff carries out in this area. In particular, our interest in centered on the figure of the «imames» as representatives of Islam in its institutionalized expression, as well as its incidence in the adaptation processes and reconstruction that Islam suffers in a mainly non-muslim context. On the one hand, «imames» as a «model» constitute an important reference for the members of the immigrated muslim community and exert a considerable influence on it at the same time as they themselves become immigrants. On the other hand, immigrated «imames» escape the official control of their original countries, having an unknown freedom in the States from which they come. Paradoxically, the exiled Islam becomes an innovation field and becomes part of a new dynamics, which is purer, and at the same time more flexible.