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Laïcité (French secularism) has become in a few years a main axis of reaffirmation of a republican grammar, reconfiguring national boundaries around citizens’ adherence to certain values. In the context of a rising culturalization of citizenship, this article looks at the way in which certain Muslim leaders participate in semantic battles around laïcité. Based on a case study of the leaders of the Union des organisations islamiques de France (which became Musulmans de France in 2017), the hypothesis is that these leaders produce expertise on laïcité in reaction to constant questioning of their republican loyalty. This expertise – which implies the production of technical knowledge and pedagogical work with co-religionists and the broader society – testifies to a (class-laden) effort to conform with republican norms. It is accompanied by a reformulation of secular principles aimed at facilitating Islamic practices – a legitimist reformulation reflecting an ideal of pacification and deconflictualization of social relations but which proves inaudible in the French public space.