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This article traces the sociogenesis of the disqualification of Muslim organizations within the associative landscape of “young immigrants” in the Lyon metropolitan area during the 1990s. It draws on interview material, public and private archives, and the analysis of the local, national, and associative press. Following an approach centered around “social movement spaces,” this article highlights how the disqualification of Muslim actors is embedded in the competitive relationship between “young immigrants” and “young Muslims,” embodied respectively by Jeunes Arabes de Lyon et banlieue (JALB) (Young Arabs of Lyon and the Suburbs) and the Union des jeunes musulmans (UJM) (Young Muslim Union). The article first describes the uses of the terms “Arab” and “Muslim” by comparing the trajectories and activist careers of JALB and UJM members. It analyzes how the labels of “Arab” and “Muslim” are received by the pro-immigrant associative sector and by local institutions. It then describes how JALB members criticize the political use of an Islamic frame of reference and shows how activists are gradually becoming the mouthpieces of a discrediting discourse toward Muslim actors, against a backdrop of heightening associative competition and moral panics surrounding Islam. All in all, this article unpacks the ways in which the disqualification of Islamic associations operates as a relational, evolving, and multi-situational process.