Islam and the Métropole is an exploration of the colonial policies of France regarding Islam
and the effects they had on religion in the early days of Algerian independence. Following the
colonization of Algeria in 1830 the French authorities adopted a manipulative policy regarding
the philosophy and practice of Islam. This was based on nineteenth-century theories of progress
elucidated by Saint-Simonian thought and the philosophy of Auguste Comte which posited
religion as a symbolic language that could be geared toward political ends in the name of
progress. The ensuing use of Islamic language and a simultaneous effort to depict traditional
Islam as backward while using the language of progress to legitimate colonial repression
created a complex dissonance that was reflected in the Muslim opposition to colonial rule. This
dissonance continued in the early days of Algerian independence as the government sponsored its
own idiosyncratic version of Progressive Islam as the religion of state. The contradictions
underlying this vision of religion were never sufficiently resolved resulting in the violent
failure of the state's ideology.
