“Islam is not a religion of foreigners in France but a French religion which should not depend on money or foreign authorities”.
This is how, a few days ago, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, summarized in our newspaper the government's approach.
Around a hundred actors in the field of the Muslim faith are meeting this Saturday in Paris in the Forum de l'islam de France (Forif), a body set up by the State to obtain a more effective representation of the second religion of the country.
This format of dialogue should make it possible to turn the page of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), which had been the privileged interlocutor of the public authorities since 2003, but was undermined by internal struggles.
In the eyes of its president and the state, the CFCM has finished tearing itself apart around the signing of a “charter of principles” of Islam in France rejecting “political Islam” and foreign interference.
Its self-dissolution is on the agenda of its next general meeting, on February 19.
The future ex-CFCM represented by its personalities
About a hundred people - two-thirds of them leaders of associations, imams, personalities locally committed to the Muslim faith and one-third of qualified personalities of national scope - have an appointment this Saturday morning at the premises of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE), for work in several groups.
They will share their conclusions in the afternoon during a plenary session at the end of which Gérald Darmanin, in charge of relations with religions, will speak.
These actors in the field (men and women) were chosen by the authorities through lists from the prefectures, following "territorial bases of Islam in France", meetings held three times (2018, 2019 and 2021) in the departments, on the initiative of each prefect.
The goal was to find departmental actors to get out of the tutelage of federations of mosques affiliated with countries (Algeria, Morocco, Turkey).
Also present will be representatives of CFCM federations, as personalities, such as Mohammed Moussaoui, Abouar Kbibech and the rector of the Paris Mosque, Chems-eddine Hafiz.
Read alsoThe French Council for Muslim Worship “is no longer viable”, says its president
The rector of the Mosque of Lyon, Kamel Kabtane, or the essayist Hakim El Karoui will also appear.
The imam of Bordeaux Tareq Oubrou, known for his independence, was finally invited to the plenary.
These actors have already started working for several weeks, around four themes.
According to a summary document, the first group proposed to set up “a new religious authority to support chaplaincies” military, prison, hospital, a mission hitherto provided by the CFCM.
Another is working on a statute of the imam, with a "definition" of his profession, his working time, his employment contract, his remuneration, etc.
Imam without e since the women imams Eva Janadin and Anne-Sophie Monsinay, who defend the imamate of women, were not invited.
The question of the financing of the cult has not yet been asked
A third group focuses on the application of the so-called law against “separatism” passed this summer, in particular on the transparency required of associations managing mosques.
Finally, a last one proposes to “set up a structure” dedicated to securing places of worship and anti-Muslim acts”.
On the other hand, nothing is explicitly formulated on the financing of the cult, yet sinews of war.
This Forif will be intended to meet annually, in parallel with the “territorial bases”, on the German model of the Deutsche Islam Konferenz (DIK).
“The idea is for these working groups to be our correspondents” on each issue dealt with, emphasizes Gérald Darmanin.
The groups and the subjects themselves are bound to evolve.
