Entre profane et sacré : Usages d'Internet et islam dans deux communautés musulmanes ouest-africaines à Montréal

Abstract

This article, based on an ethnographic study of twenty
months among West African Muslims in Montreal, explores the
uses of the Internet in two West African Muslim communities.
Using a framework adapted from the sacred-profane dichotomy
of Emile Durkheim, this study attempts to reconstruct the modes
of preservation and dismantling of the sacred and the ways in
which the Internet is involved in these processes. While in the
Mouride community, the Internet is used to maintian religious
hierarchies and sacred spaces, another Guinean and Senegalese
Islamic Center uses the Internet as a tool for democratization
and secularization of religious knowledge. The study of Internet
usage in these two West African communities in Montreal offers
a mixed view on how to be a Muslim in the context of migration
and transnationalism, and the role of new information technolo
gies in the implementation of religious practices.