A day after the presentation of a bill by five representatives of the Les Républiques (LR) party to “mandatory the signing of the Charter of the Principles of Islam in France by all mosques in France”, three organizations represented. The Council of Muslim Worship (CFCM) and detractors of the Charter are eager to announce their membership. The exit came nearly ten days after Interior Minister Gerald Dormann described the CFCM as “dead”, sparking another controversy after months of pressure from all religious representations of the government to sign the charter. Muslim.

In this context, the Deputies Bill also proposed to carry forward the binding nature of this membership until the closure of mosques in case of refusal. But was the hasty withdrawal of the three organizations too late to end the CFCM’s internal disagreement over the Charter of Islam in France?

Consular Islam in the Crosshairs

On 26 December, a day after the tripartite announcement, the Sunday Journal (JDD) revealed that in all respects, a Forum should replace the Council with effect from January 2022. “The aim is to promote the Islam of France independent of foreign powers and unrelated to radical currents”, French media reported.

Strongly vehemently averse to the CFCM, the Dormanine department estimates that in 19 years, nothing would have been achieved. “Of course, we heard association presidents condemning terrorism the day after the attack. They were seen attending official functions and posing for cameras to remind people that Islam is a ‘religion of peace and love’ , but “no concrete work has been done,” one executive told JDD.

The CFCM’s role is said to be in the implementation of programs for the prevention of radicalization, the fight against extremist currents, or even “circles that aid Islam for political purposes, such as the Muslim Brotherhood.” The latter would still be “an important component of the CFCM through the Federation of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF), renamed MF Dal Mussulmane de France”.

Other recent revelations would also have been against the body and in particular its president. On 1 December, the magazine Le Pointe highlighted the relationship between Mohamed Moussoui and “the security institutions of his country of origin”, that is, Morocco. According to French media, the representative of the CFCM was “taken care of by a processing agent wanted by the French courts to divert confidential files or privileges to bring Moroccan nationals into France”.

The Paris apartments would thus have been “paid for by Moroccan intelligence services, who wish to control their diaspora and use the Islamic question as a vector of diplomatic influence, like the Ottoman or Algerian”. Since then, the council’s number one will only be received by officials from the Interior Ministry’s Central Office of Worship, Le Point said, in a reference where Darmanin called for “breaking with consular Islam” in October 2020. ,

Darmanin wants to turn the page on CFCM

The following January, the Forum de l’Islam de France (FORIF) would function as “a collective born out of the fundamentalists of Islam in France, who were organized in the regions”, so that religious members would be divided into two “non-negotiable”. The issue points to “independence from foreign powers and independence from international currents”.

JDD reports that four working groups have already been formed within the instance. The first group will oversee the actions of the clergy, the second will identify “anti-Muslim” acts and the last two will focus on the “training of cadres” including imams and the implementation of the so-called antithesis. Separatism law in the midst of Muslim worship.

According to the same source, “President Emmanuel Macron and the Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darminin, in early December sealed the fate of the French Council of Muslim Worship (CFCM), created in 2003, and decided no longer to act in their general With delegates”. Quoted in the article, the ministerial team reports a “deep reorganization of representation and dialogue.” Words coming closer to the CFCM in the management of worship with the executive and Elysee.