French Islamic council divided by internal squabbles

By Shweta Desai

PARIS (AA) - Divisions within the French Council of Muslim Worship (CFCM) deepened Sunday as four organizations which recently quit the body announced the creation of a "coordination” initiative in order to reflect on the “overhaul of the representation of the Muslim religion in France."

The Federation of the Great Mosque of Paris, the Gathering of Muslims in France (RMF), Muslims of France (MF) and the French Federation of Islamic Associations of Africa, the Comoros and the Antilles (FFAIACA) issued a statement calling on French Muslims and Muslim organizations and mosques to join their new dynamic based on “fair governance.”

The four organizations, which were among the nine federations that made up the CFCM, withdrew from the body’s executive office on March 17.

The CFCM, established in 2003, oversees the regulation of religious activities and mosques in accordance with state rules. The withdrawing organizations had expressed disagreement over the "unilateral" appointment of a new national prison chaplain.

CFCM’s president, Mohammed Moussaoui, said the announcement was intended to “paralyze the action of the body.”

“By creating this coordination, the leaders of these federations want to prevent this evolution demanded and expected by Muslims in France and at the same time disrupt the future establishment of departmental councils,” he said in a statement issued on Twitter.

The announcement has laid bare the cracks within the CFCM, which has been battling dissent and squabbling since it undertook a reform project in 2019 at the behest of the government led by President Emmanuel Macron.

Muslim leaders were under pressure to sign the Islamic “Charter of Principles” incorporating these reforms rejecting political Islam, foreign interference and reaffirming the compatibility "of the Islam with the Republic.”

Chems-Eddine Hafiz, the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, who quit the CFCM, had said “we do not all agree on what this charter of values is.”

While the CFCM in January announced its agreement to the text of the charter, three other federations affiliated with it refused to sign it, saying the text risks “weakening the bonds of trust between the Muslims of France and the nation.”