Not an auspicious beginning to Macron’s resistance to the advancing jihad and Sharia oppression.
“France’s Flawed Stand against Islamist Radicalization,” by Martha Lee, National Review, October 27, 2020:
…To American ears, proposed aggressive regulation of religious institutions may sound extraordinary. Yet while more militant anti-Islamists might consider Macron’s measures a step in the right direction, his “ambition to form and promote . . . a generation of imams and intellectuals” defending “an Islam that is fully compatible with the values of the Republic” is enormously flawed. For the government will be deputizing a great deal of responsibility for the project to an organizations with its own Islamist links. Much of the effort will be managed by the Conseil français du culte musulman (CFCM), an organization established by France’s Interior Ministry in 2003 to represent French Muslims. The CFCM, as the state’s intermediary, will be responsible for certifying imam-training programs and the imams themselves, as well as for writing a charter to which imams must pledge adherence or risk losing certification. All this, the government has explained, will be financed by taxing French Muslims undertaking Hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca).
Which Islam, then, will the CFCM promote? It is a notoriously divided institution, comprising members from different federations, some of which are associated with foreign regimes, including Morocco, Algeria, Turkey, and Comoros. It also includes Musulmans de France (formerly known as the UOIF), a French organization founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Turkish Islamist movement Millî Görüş, which is closely connected to the Ankara regime.
The CFCM has been widely criticized in the past for its unrepresentative nature, and for its acrimonious internal disputes. Worst of all, Islamists exert the greatest control over the organization. While some CFCM representatives are elected, the election system itself rewards large mosques — which are often Islamist-run or -funded — with the greatest number of delegates. For the government to rely on CFCM for this project excludes the majority of French Muslims, as well as the voices of reformists and non-Islamist theologians, many of whom have previously complained that the hardline views of UOIF have completely taken over the institution.
It is certainly difficult to imagine that the CFCM will focus on developing an “enlightened Islam.” Just last year, the CFCM was criticized for declaring the hijab to be a religious obligation. This marked a clear turn toward hardline Islam, as it had previously recognized the existing debate around the question.
The CFCM is currently led by prominent French Muslim leader Mohammad Moussaoui, who is close to the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Moroccan regime, as well as activist Abdallah Zekri. Zekri and Moussaoui are also both part of the Fondation pour l’islam de France, an organization that will receive 10 million euros ($12 million) in government funds for its involvement in the government’s plans.
Both Zekri and Moussaoui have a history of justifying or downplaying the threat of Islamism. Earlier this year, Zekri was at the center of a media scandal after he tried to excuse death threats sent to a teenager who had denounced Islam.
As for Moussaoui, when interviewed by French senator Jacqueline Eustache as part of a Senate investigation into Islamist radicalization, he repeated the old canard that Islamists have absolutely nothing to do with Islam and have appropriated both the term and the religion itself. His reasoning was elucidated when he then attempted to avoid questions on his views of the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi influence in certain French neighborhoods. When Senator Eustache insisted, he declared that groups should not be entirely rejected on the basis of ideology and encouraged combatting ideas, not people.
And so we wonder: Which hardline ideologues will the CFCM refuse to reject as partners in the government’s counter-radicalization efforts?…