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Fez – The French government intends to replace the country’s largest Muslim-rights organization with one free from “foreign influence” amid a crackdown on Islamic organizations in France.
French Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin announced on January 20 that the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) would be replaced by a new religious representation organization.
“This is the end of foreign influence by Islam in France,” Darmanin claimed.
In an interview with Franceinfo, the minister noted that the CFCM was established “to structure France’s Islam,” but that it would have revealed its limitations.
Darmanin believes that France is being subjected to “very significant foreign state intervention, which we cannot accept.” The Islamic body, he claimed, was organized around “national federations: Algerians, Moroccans, Tunisians, Comorians, and Turks.”
Darmanin has confirmed that the Forum of the Islam of France (FORIF) will replace the CFCM in early February.
He “invited all those who wish to organize Islam [in France] to organize,” the event, adding that “the state is not responsible of doing so.”
“We wish to allow the means of this organization for chaplaincies, to look at anti-religious acts, for the constitution of imams in each of the mosques, to fight against separatism.”
Read also: France’s Islamophobia: Targeting the Muslim Minority to Win Votes
“Women will be represented,” Darmanin said of the next conference, “since there are women imams or women religious leaders of Islam today who are never represented in the CFCM.”
CFCM’s Chairman Mohamed Moussaoui previously lamented the recurrent attacks on Islam and Muslims “hidden beneath the acceptable outward appearance of freedom of expression, [which] is manifesting itself more and more openly.”
Darmanin pointed out that Moussaoui’s mandate expired on January 19 without a deal in place to identify a replacement, even on a temporary basis.
On December 12, 2021, Darmanin classified the CFCM as a “dead” organization. The French minister made the remarks while appearing as a guest on LCI’s Sunday political show, Le Grand Jury.
He clarified that the government considers that the CFCM is no longer capable of performing its functions in the same manner as before.
The statements are part of Damranin’s ongoing campaign against Islamic groups.
Since December 2020, the French Interior Minister has initiated a vast surveillance operation targeting various mosques and Islamic organizations, with several of them being shut down or dissolved.
