This is a first in ten years.
Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior and Worship, went to the Esplanade des religions, in Bussy-Saint-Georges, this Friday afternoon.
More specifically, he went to meet Muslims and Hicham Tahiri, the president of the Tawba association which manages the mosque.
And this, at a time when the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) is living its last days, following - in particular - internal dissension.
If Gérald Darmanin made no particular announcement, he reaffirmed the will of the public authorities to find new interlocutors among Muslims and to turn their backs on a “consular” Islam built with federations of mosques affiliated with foreign countries.
This is also the objective of the Forum for Islam in France (Forif), which meets on Saturday in Paris: to give a more legitimate representation to the second religion of France.
About a hundred actors in the field chosen by the State, men and women locally involved in the Muslim faith or national figures, have been working for a year on subjects as diverse as imams, chaplains or even anti-Muslim acts.
Invited to the Forum de l'islam de France by the minister
While treading the esplanade of religions of Bussy-Saint-Georges, Gérald Darmanin discovered a unique place in France, since for ten years now, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists and Hindus have lived together and dialogued on this esplanade.
Without a shadow on the board.
For proof: Claude Windisch, the president of the Jewish community J'Buss, welcomed the minister alongside the president of the Muslim association and the mayor (LR) Yann Dubosc.
A brand new synagogue should come out of the ground… next to the mosque.
Bussy-Saint-Georges, Friday February 4, 2022: Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior and Worship, was received by the president of the association which manages the mosque, located on the esplanade of religions.
LP / Guénaèle Calant
Gérald Darmanin, who took his time to discover the prayer room, went up to the mezzanine, reserved for women.
Before speaking - off microphones - with Muslim representatives, in the literary café which adjoins the mosque.
“The president invited me to take part in Forif.
There is a strong implication on his part.
He is aware of the need for organization”, says Hicham Tahiri, with satisfaction.
For his part, Abdelaziz Abderrahmane, president of the Departmental Council for Muslim Worship (CDCM 77), also president of the Moissy-Cramayel mosque, gave a file to the minister, with concrete proposals.
He too was invited to the forum on Saturday.
In front of the journalists this time, the minister recalled the long history - sometimes conflicting - between "all the religions and the State".
He praised the exemplary nature of the Bussy-Saint-Georges esplanade, which gives "full of courage and hope".
Why had no minister of worship ever come there before, to meet leaders and followers of different religions who have been talking for so many years?
"You have to have a first time," replied Gérald Darmanin.
Before hammering: “There is no shameful worship.
Believers are good citizens”.