By V4 Agency
The council’s chairman believes that the move is aimed at making impossible the work of the existing organisation, which cooperates with the government. Earlier, its members had signed a charter, stating that the values of the Republic are superior to religious principles.
Amidst the ongoing heated debates over Islamisation in France, President Emmanuel Macron announced the French government’s plan to fight radicalisation last February. The proposed new legislation seeks to increase the government’s powers in school education and the training of imams, as well as in overseeing the transparency of the mosques’ funding. The government is also planning to ban foreign imams from preaching in France in a bid to reduce foreign influence and ensure that everyone respects the laws of the French Republic.
This January the government and the French Council of Muslim Faith (CFCM) signed the finalised version of the Charter on Republican Values but, having disputed certain paragraphs, some member organisations refused to sign the agreement. The organisations in question contested two points in the document – the rejection of foreign interference and that of political Islam – but the French government insisted on both. The government argues that only imams trained in France should be allowed to preach in the country so as to fend off foreign influence and to prevent foreign imams from preaching and spreading radical views in French mosques.
The protesting organisations have now taken action, announcing their departure from the CFCM and their intention to establish a new organisation that would place the representation of Islam – the religion of Muslims – in France on a new footing.
The organisations that decided to leave the ranks of CFCM include the Federation of the Great Mosque of Paris, the Gathering of Muslims in France (RMF) and the French Federation of Islamic Associations of Africa, the Comoros and the Antilles (FFAIACA). The latter three also announced that their leaders have set up a coordination body with the aim to rethink how to transform the representation of Islam in France to better serve the country’s Muslim communities.
The leaders of the new alliance called on the people and organisations responsible for mosques and other places of worship to actively participate in their work so that they could represent the expectations and aspirations of all Muslims in France. The new organisation’s vision is to represent the fundamental values of an authentic and open Islam with dignity and fairness, and to also be in harmony with the values and principles of the French Republic, Le Figaro writes.
CFCM leader Mohammed Moussaoui, however, appeared less than impressed with the announcement of the retracting organisations. He issued a statement accusing them of leaving CFCM in a bid to paralyse its activity.
The statement by CFCM chief Mohammed Moussaoui calls on Muslims in France to take control of their own destiny and attend the rallies soon to beginin in each département, where they will be able to decide about the leadership methods of the religious body representing them.
Mr Moussaoui also drew attention to the fact that the organisations in question have always opposed all forms of election, as well as the creation of county (or département) councils responsible for Muslim worship. By creating a new alliance, the departing organisations aim to prevent the development demanded and expected by French Muslims, and the establishment of département councils, according to CFCM’s leader. He added that the newly formed association has arbitrarily proclaimed itself to be sole advocate of Muslims in France, thus denying them the right to participate in regional rallies and consultations going forward. The move practically means that Muslims would have no say in matters affecting them, he added.