By Hadi Taymid, IOL France Correspondent

PARIS, April 20 (IslamOnline.net) - "I was so astonished… It is rather a different image of Muslim women than that portrayed in our media as submissive and black-dressed," said a journalist for French TV 5 channel, while covering the largest gathering of Muslims in Europe on Sunday, April 20.

The 20th round of Borjet conference came at a very critical juncture for the five-million Muslim communities in France and others in European countries.

"The conference acquires this year a great significance given the historical institution of the French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM)," Al-Tuhami Ibriz, head of the Islamic organizations told IslamOnline.net, referring to the first officially-recognized national body for Muslims formed here few days ago.

The three-day gala, to draw 100,000 visitors, is entitled "Islam… From Understanding to Application” and takes place at a time Muslim minorities in the West are facing challenges of integration into the milieu of their societies," Ibriz added.

"Extensive"

But the Borjet conference is rather an occasion appropriate enough to see on the ground how the second largest community in France look like through books, Islamic attire fairs and distinctive norms.

There is noticeably an extensive presence of veiled Muslim women including saleswomen in the stalls, visitors and organizers; which leaves conclusive the demonstration that Muslim women play a key effective role in their society.

The conference sends another clear, surely true, indication of how those conceptions are misleading. The French society of Muslim Women is the most active and prominent among 15 other Muslim groups in the European country.

Books is another indication; women visitors mostly bought books written by such writers as Nadia Yassin, the daughter of the spiritual leader of Morocco's largest Islamic group Adl and Ihsan.

"I like such a writer as she sets an example for women who could integrate into their societies even with their veils," Ru'a, 22, told IslamOnline.net while surfing at the large number of Islamic books on the stands.

Among the writers whose books are shown in the fair is Youssef Qaradawi, the famous Islamic cleric, and Tarek Ramadan, an Islamic researcher.

Meters behind, a large screen telling the story of a veiled woman who fell in love with a French youth. A mix of Western and eastern music waved through with the amusing tale.

Political Messages

But the gathering was clearly entangled in politics, as it is widely expected to be, with the U.S.-led war against Iraq draws to a close and a new phase widely seen by Muslims as "rerun of colonization" began as well as Israeli occupation forces step up their aggression against Palestinian civilians that left six of them dead a day earlier.

Drinks can do the job. Mecca Cola, the fizzy drink with a message on every bottle to "drink committed" to the Muslim cause, were freely distributed to the visitors.

Mecca Cola was launched to rival U.S.-produced world leader in the beverages' sector Coca-Cola rivals and widely seen as a new attempt to reject the U.S. foreign policies in a "commercial" and hopefully more effective way.

"It is so important not to drink a product whose venues used to help the Israeli occupation army," said one salesman.

Mecca Cola says it donates 10 percent of profits to Palestinian children and to European charities.

The Borjet conference is to feature 24 lectures given by a host of politicians, intellectuals and scientists, the most important are Mahfouz Nehnah of Algeria's Peace Society Movement and famous Egyptian preacher Amr Khaled, who is expected to deliver two lectures. French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy is to show up.

Sarkozy threatened Tuesday, April 15, to deport Muslim clerics expressing "radical" views, after so-called "hardliners" made a strong showing in elections to CFCM.

"Imams who make statements that run contrary to the values of the republic will be deported."

Book and product fairs and Qur’an recitation contests are to be organized on the sidelines of the Borjet conference whose last year's visitors hit 57,000 thousands, an indication of growing weight for Islam in Europe in general and France in particular.