The holy alliance. Rekindled interest in Islamic tradition among immigrants and their children in French housing estates

Based on a long-term ethnographic study (2016–2019) in both the Bosquets housing estate in Clichy-sous-Bois and the Chemin-Bas d’Avignon neighborhood in southern France, this article looks at the revival of Islamic traditions among post-colonial and working-class immigrants—more specifically, North Africans. Running counter to the generational rupture argument, it aims to show that religious reaffiliation is dependent on an intergenerational and faith-based alliance between immigrant workers—who have become the “elders” of the community—and their children. The former have worked hard to get mosques built in their local housing estates, while the latter have devoted their energies to a form of “self-care” based on the intensification of acts of ritual adoration.