[Français ci-dessous]

Good day, one year after the Paris attacks against Charlie Hebdo and the Jewish hyper-casher, let us pray for the victims of terrorism and their families around the world.
Please find below our latest information:

1 | LGBT Muslims facing obscurantisms and (homo)nationalisms - unpublished 5 years PhD. study (in psychology - anthropology PhD. study available after summer 2016)
Lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans of Muslim confession or cutlure have always existed and finally dare to talk more around the world. Finished the closet and shame, they increasingly refuse to hide, and above all, to deny the complexity of their identities. They appear to be actually at the forefront of an alternative, progressive, inclusive Islam development, generally with no particular ideological motivation, other than to defend their right to exist per se: the right to dignity, marriage, parenthood and spirituality at a time. Why these alternative speeches appear precisely today?
Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, PhD in social sciences (theology, psychology, anthropology) and a homosexual Imam, co-founder of the first European inclusive  mosque, director of the CALEM Cabinet, analyzed the speech being elaborated, since the end of last century, by homo-bi-sexual and transgender people who claim to be Muslims in France and around the world:

- Buy the book online, here

- Learn more about the author, here.
- An excerpt from the book (in French), here.
- The press release of the editor (in French), here.

2 | Updated services offered by the CALEM Calem in 2016
    In 2016, the international expertises CALEM Cabinet strengthens the following areas of interventions: SECULARISM - INTERCULTURALITY - CORPORALITY - RELIGIOSITY. Our Cabinet, created early 2015 built on a unique expertise (more than fifteen years of seniority), assists various European, North African and international institutions to focus on these areas:

Studies and research, field work, project endeavors, training of trainers, citizens’ training, conferences, symposiums, prevention, communication. Indeed, the primary objective of our past research was to analyze the reasons of contemporary emergence in France, compared to similar situations elsewhere in the world, of citizens groups advocating for the recognition of minority rights, from within Islam. The public emergence of these minorities is done through an inclusive mutations of Islam de France, but also by developing alternative social and identity representations (feminist, gay-friendly, environmentalists, against the transphobia and anti-Semitism), in a political context characterized by the rise of obscurantisms on one hand and nationalisms on the other hand.

    Our future research proposes to update the results set about the formation of gender identities, and participation to republican dynamics in Europe compared to other fields, stressing the inclusion of new political issues, particularly related to citizens bodies' inclusiveness within religious communities, as well as ownership of these emerging environmental challenges. The main questions of this research program focuses on the conditions of coexistence, in the same religious community, of different categories of citizenship based on gender and these categories transformations into one political body, including Citizens without distinction of origin, religion, sex, gender or sexual orientation, through the development of alternative universal identities. This will establish precisely how the dehumanizing discourses of religious and community leaders, through an often violent fascist political ideology , motivate minorities, particularly within Islam in France and elsewhere, to deploy a continuum of alternative ecological identities: at a community, local, regional and global level.
     Taking as an aim community, civic and alternative mobilizations, this project is part of a participatory approach and contemporary anthropology of religions, to provide understanding of the elements involved in the transformation of the definition of citizenship in France, elsewhere in Europe and in the world. Our research project is thus situated at the intersection of contemporary reflections on religion, gender, radical violence and alternative political identities:

- Our services Presentation file (updated 2016)

- Detailed report on past research (2010-2016: Sexual minorities, inclusiveness and progressivism in Islam)
- Future research project - request by email (radically alternative minority identities, ecological and sustainable social environments)



3 | Agenda (partial) of the CALEM Cabinet for early 2016
- Conference in Copenhagen (January 12, thank you to the local association of progressive and inclusive Muslim women)
- Public seminar "Gender and subjectivities in Islam, North Africa and Middle-East" at the EHESS (School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences - 18 February)
- Interreligious Symposium in London (February 25, thank you to the largest LGBT organization in the UK and its genders, sexualities and religions)
- Training of Trainers (TOT) in Berlin (April 28, thank you to the main local LGBT organization)

[Français]

    Pour 2016, le Cabinet d’expertises internationales CALEM renforce les domaines d'interventions suivant : LAÏCITÉ – INTERCULTURALITÉ - CORPORALITÉ – RELIGIOSITÉ.

Notre Cabinet, crée début 2015 afin de renforcer une expertise unique (plus de quinze ans d’ancienneté), assiste différentes institutions européennes, nord africaines et internationales dans des domaines privilégiés : études et recherches, actions de terrain, planification de projets, formations des formateurs, formations des citoyen-nes, conférences, colloques, prévention, communication. En effet, l’objectif premier de nos recherches passées fut d’analyser les raisons de l’émergence contemporaine en France, en comparaison de situation analogues ailleurs dans le monde, de collectifs citoyens visant à la reconnaissance du droits des minorités, depuis l’intérieur de l’Islam. L’émergence publique de ces minorités s’effectue par le biais de mutations d’un rapport inclusif à l’islam de France, mais aussi par l’élaboration de représentations sociales et identitaires alternatives (féministes, gay-friendly, écologistes, contre la transphobie et l’antisémitisme), dans un contexte politique caractérisé par la montée des obscurantismes d’un côté, et des nationalismes de l’autre.

    Notre projet de recherches futures propose d’actualiser les résultats établis à propos de la constitution des identités de genre, et la participation aux dynamiques républicaines, en Europe en comparaison d’autres terrains, en insistant sur l’inclusion de nouvelles problématiques politiques, liées notamment à l’inclusivité du corps de tou-tes citoyen-nes au sein des communautés religieuses, ainsi qu’à l’appropriation par ces derniers d’enjeux écologiques émergents. Le questionnement principal de ce programme de recherche porte sur les conditions de la coexistence, dans une même communauté religieuse, de différentes catégories de citoyenneté fondées sur le genre et des transformations de ces catégories en un seul corps politique, incluant les citoyens et les citoyennes sans distinction d’origine, de confession, de sexe, de genre ou d’orientation sexuelle, par le biais de l’élaboration d’alternatives identitaires universelles, inédites. Il s’agira d’établir précisément comment le discours déshumanisant des autorités religieuses et communautaires, par le biais d’une fascisation souvent violente des identités politiques, motivent les minorités, notamment au sein de l’islam de France et d’ailleurs, à déployer un continuum d’identités écologiques alternatives, communautaires, locales, régionales et planétaires.

     En prenant pour objet des mobilisations communautaires, citoyennes et alternatives, minoritaires mais avant-gardiste, ce projet s’inscrit dans une démarche d’anthropologie participative et contemporaine des religions, afin d’offrir des éléments de compréhension de la transformation de la définition de la citoyenneté en France et ailleurs, en Europe et dans le monde. Notre projet de recherche se situe ainsi à l’intersection des réflexions contemporaines menées sur la religiosité, le genre, la violence radicale et les identités politiques alternatifs :