Tareq Oubrou's Geotheology: Sharia of the Minority and the Secularization of European Islamic Thought

This chapter critically introduces the work of the French imam-theologian Tareq Oubrou as a prominent voice of the emerging “European Islamic thought.” It argues that the imam uses Islamic classical jurisprudential devices (such as fatwas), contemporary hermeneutics and critical thought, and personal communion with the divine (spirituality) to renew the understanding of God, Man, and the Qur’an in the European context. In so doing, he 1) “relativizes” sharia law by emphasizing the questions of ethics and meaning, 2) “minoritizes” Islam as a religion in a pluralist liberal milieu, and 3) “localizes” its norms, “nationalizes” religious authority, and “institutionalizes” its manifestations. His work is synthesized in this chapter in three concepts: 1) “geotheology,” 2) “sharia of the minority,” and 3) “European Islam.”