MUSLIM COUNCILS IN FRANCE AGREE TO CHARTER FOR RELIGIOUS REFORMS
▶ Document says that places of worship must not be used to deliver political or ideological messages
France’s Muslim federations agreed on a charter of principles requested by President Emmanuel Macron yesterday as he presses forward with measures to eliminate sectarianism and extremism.
The nine federations that make up the French Council of the Muslim Faith agreed at a meeting with Mr Macron on a text that should guide a national council of imams.
The document stated that places of worship could not be used to deliver political or ideological messages or as platforms for foreign governments.
“No religious conviction can be invoked to evade the obligations of citizens. We reaffirm from the outset that neither our religious convictions nor any other reason can supplant the principles which found the law and the constitution of the Republic,” the accord said.
The council was urged in November by Mr Macron to establish the charter following the murder of schoolteacher Samuel Paty, who stoked anger by showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed to students.
It rejected “instrumentalising” Islam for political ends and asserted equality between men and women, while denouncing practices such as female genital mutilation, virginity certificates and forced marriage.
It also condemned racism and anti-Semitism, and warned that mosques “are not created for the spreading of nationalist speech defending foreign regimes”.
The charter will also provide for greater scrutiny of foreign donations of more than €10,000 ($12,070).
“This charter reaffirms the compatibility of the Muslim faith with the principles of the republic, including secularism, and the commitment of French Muslims to their complete citizenship,” council president Mohammed Moussaoui said.
He said the charter would be shared with imams and local leaders “with a view to the widest possible consultation and membership”.
After meeting Mr Macron at the Elysee Palace yesterday with fellow council members, Mr Moussaoui said the charter was a first step.
Its formal adoption by the nine federations of the council paves the way to a restructuring of Islam in France, particularly the creation of a body responsible for “labelling” imams.
Several members of the Muslim council criticised the concept of a charter that would declare Islam as being compatible with French legal rules and values – the first step towards setting up the proposed council of imams.
But Mr Moussaoui and his two vice presidents agreed to a deal in talks with Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.
“There was an awareness that these disagreements were preventing the Muslim community from asserting itself,” Mr Moussaoui said. “This awareness allowed us to overcome our differences.”
“I commend the work undertaken by the French Muslim community which clearly condemns political Islam,” Mr Darmanin said.
The charter is part of Mr Macron’s desire to reduce the influences he said encroached on French secularism.
He has taken action against mosques and associations accused of extremism. He also plans to remove about 300 imams in France sent from Turkey, Morocco and Algeria.
The French government is pushing through legislation to combat “pernicious” radicalism. This would tighten rules on issues including religious-based education and polygamy.
But the moves, along with the president’s defence of the Prophet Mohammed cartoons published by satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, angered many Muslims who believe Mr Macron is attacking Islam.
The president rejected the claims, saying the measures aim to protect the country’s estimated four to five million Muslims, the largest number in any European country.
President Macron rejected objections to the latest measures he said were created to protect the Muslims of France
Images of the state funeral of Samuel Paty, a schoolteacher murdered in a Paris suburb in a terrorist attack last October, showed France’s commitment to its core values of freedom of speech and secularism. Paty’s killing is one in a string of brutal attacks in the country in recent years. It has hurried President Emmanuel Macron to agree on a new charter between the state and leaders from the country’s Muslim community advocating “enlightened” practice of the religion in France.
The document, signed on Saturday, addresses foreign infiltration of extremist ideology, asserts gender equality, rejects the concept of apostasy and emphasises the protection of minority groups against hatred falsely justified in the name of religion. From now on, all of France’s Muslim preachers will have to agree to these requirements.
Defining a national brand of Islam is unprecedented in the history of Europe, which has traditionally avoided attempts to shape the manner in which Muslims interpret the spiritual tenets of their faith.
State involvement in regulating doctrine does not, as some claim, necessarily go against the value of religious freedom. Enlightenment and tolerance are already promoted within most of the global Muslim community. Rather than constituting state overreach, empowering religious tolerance will realise the unique role faith can play in building a better society.
Constructive co-operation between government and religious leaders is common in many Islamic societies. The UAE, for example, is building the Abrahamic Family House, which aims to be a beacon for understanding and peaceful coexistence. UAE initiatives led to Pope Francis and Dr Ahmad Al Tayyeb, Grand Imam of Al Azhar University, signing the Document of Human Fraternity.
The historic moment in Abu Dhabi showed that doctrinal clarity on issues of peaceful coexistence is an important part of combatting extremism. In France, however, there are other social issues to address if authorities truly want to weaken extremism in the country.
The conditions in which the nation’s poorest citizens and migrants, many of them Muslim, live are conducive to radicalisation. Poverty, crime and lack of opportunity are rife in the huge housing estates of the more disadvantaged French suburbs. In such desperate conditions, extremist viewpoints are often sold by malicious actors as the only way to bring meaning and structure to people’s lives.
Resolving ideological and social challenges will also take momentum away from growing nationalist and often xenophobic extremism, which is just as dangerous as its fanatical and militant Islamist counterpart. Europe’s leaders must address this ideology with equal determination, or they run the risk of appearing as though they are singling out extremism only within the Muslim community. It is not anti-religion to promote tolerance. But in a continent that has never before forayed so far into the issue of combatting terrorist ideology, dialogue between communities, in good faith, must be the guiding principle.