Mohamed Cherkaoui, Ph.D. Sorbonne, is research Director Emeritus Paris, University Professor, former Director of the French Journal of Sociology, and member of the editorial board of several scientific journals. He has published twenty books and a hundred scientific articles. He is a member of the Academia Europeae and European Academy of Sociology.

• Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Introduction 1 Disenchantment of the World, Depopulation of the Heavens 1 Persistence of Faith in Islam Countries, Progress of Atheism Elsewhere2 Orientation toward the Human or toward the Divine: Progressive Secularization or Resilience of the ReligiousConclusion 2 Time for the Sacred 1 Rising Religiosity 2 The Time of the Sacred and Education 3 Variations in Rates of Practice by Social Determinants 4 Cultual, Media and Cultural Practices 5 Integration, Regulation and Trust 3 Twilight of the Gods 1 The Disenchantment of the World 2 Works and Days: Islam Paganized and Chthonian Beliefs 3 The Paradox of Consequences of Colonization 4 The Political Instrumentalization of Salafism and the Enchanted World 4 Is a Rational Explanation of Islamization Possible? 1 Exogenous Causes 1.1 Socio-Economic Changes Lead to a Secular Decline in Religiosity 1.2 The Religious Market Would Account for the Practices of Believers and Their Intensity of Belief 1.3 The Separation of Church and State Would Influence Religious Practice 1.4 The Extension of Islam Could Be Explained by the Policy Pursued by Certain States with Virtually Unlimited Financial Means1.5 The Media Have Influenced Muslim Public Opinion 1.6 The Muslim Is Searching for His Identity, His Belonging and Reference Groups 2 Endogenous Explanations 2.1 The Relative Deprivation of Young People Is the Cause of This Popular Enthusiasm for Islam and for Their Proselytism 2.2 The Perception that Muslims Have of Themselves and Others Is a Reflection of Both the Spread of Islam and Their Zeal 2.3 The Transformations of the Social Morphology of Muslim Countries, the End of Popular Islam and the Growing Domination of Scriptural Islam, Could Be Causes of This Green Tidal Wave 2.4 The Structures of Interaction and Interdependence Explain the Diffusion of Religious Practices 5 Deprivation and Islamization: Socio- Educational Mobility and Its Consequences 1 Social Mobility and Educational Mobility 2 Generative Mechanisms of Mobility 3 Meritocracy or Dominance Structure? 6 The Mechanisms that Produce Islamic Fundamentalism: an Outline for an Interpretation of Its Genesis1 Elective Affinities between Popular Islam and Social Morphology 2 Transformations of Morphology and the Decline of Popular Islam: the Resurgence of Salafism 3 The Prophecy of the “Proletaroid” Intellectuals as a Response to the Crisis of Society 4 Rational Choice Theory and Altruistic Suicide 7 From Absolute Monotheism to Ethical Puritanism 1 The Ethical Puritanism of Muslims and Moral Tolerance In the West 2 Muslims and the Magic of Modernity Conclusion8 Confidence in Institutions: an International Comparison 1 Trust as the Basis for the Legitimacy of the Social Order2 Time of Suspicion9 Islam and Democracy: Comparative Analysis of Individual and Collective Preferences 1 Morphologies and Democracies 2 The People’s Choice: Democracy or Authoritarianism 3 Taxonomy of Democracies 4 Distribution of Countries according to the Three Models. Place of the Muslims in the Democratic Trihedron Bibliography Index Nominum