This article focuses on students at a private secondary "franco-arabe" school in Dakar, Senegal. I draw on theories of de/coloniality, dis/citizenship, and language ideologies to examine the ways language and education policies in Senegal shape how "franco-arabe" students make sense of their places as "arabophone" Senegalese Muslims within a Muslim-majority, secular, "postcolonial," francophone state. I argue that larger language ideologies about the purpose and value of the Arabic language and Islamic schooling place immediate obstacles around how and to what extent students can participate in secular spaces, with a particular focus on access to public higher education.