French Muslims lack unity and can not function as a cohesive community, said Ternisien

By Hadi Yahmed, IOL Paris Correspondent

PARIS, July 18 (IslamOnline.net) – A cohort of French experts and prominent Islamic figures gainsaid arguments that French Muslims are posing a threat to the country's secularism, dismissing them as unsubstantiated.

The status of  French Muslims can in no way endanger the secularism endorsed by the majority of the French people, they stressed.

In statements to IslamOnline.net, Xavier Ternisien, a Le Monde journalist and expert in Islamic affairs, described as groundless the recent heated debate on the so-called possible Islamic threat to France's secularism.

French Muslims lack a racial, sectarian or even linguistic unity and their number undermines their ability to act as a cohesive and harmonious bloc in side the French society, he argued.

Even using a term as "French Muslims" in referring to Muslims in France has many shortcomings, said Ternisien, adding that they differ from each other according to their national backgrounds, languages and dialects as well as adherence to a specific school of Islamic thinking.

Admitting that compared to other believers Muslims are more keen on abiding by their religious teachings, the French experts claimed that only 10 to 20 percent of France's six million Muslims do so.

There are Muslims who drink and others who do not go to mosques, Ternisien said, arguing many members of the Islamic community in France are already "secularized."

According to a study published in 2001 by the French public opinion institute, 70 percent of France's Muslims fast during the holy fasting month of Ramadan but only 30 percent of them perform their prayers.

The study also argued that 70 percent of French Muslims do not go to mosques.

Muslims in France, whose number is estimated at around 5.8 million, hail from several African and Asian countries, with the majority from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey.

Thereupon, there are some 2000 different Islamic societies in France representing different Islamic communities.

This diversity showed its face in the formation of the new French Muslim Council. 

Status

"Muslims represent the second biggest religious group (in France) after Catholics," said Ibriz

In statements to IOL, the Union of Islamic Organizations in France (UIOF) chairman Althuhami Ibriz countered Ternisien's argument that the number of Muslims in France underline their influence.

"The number of Muslims in France entitles them to assume a prominent status inside the republic," he said.

"Muslims represent the second biggest religious group after Catholics whose number is estimated at 43 million. This means they come before Protestants (800,000), Jews (700,000) and Buddhists (400,00)," underlined Ibriz.

He admitted, however, that French Muslim political and social presence inside the society does not match their numbers.

Muslims are on the margin of the political life in France, UIOF chief told IOL, asserting people must not therefore expect to see their influence on the decision-making process in the near future.

He asserted that Muslims are divided by their racial and sectarian affiliations and can not function as a cohesive and harmonious bloc that could for example be an electoral chip.

French Muslims are still trying to find their way into political and social institutions and had not have a representation council until this year, Ibriz said.

Private Life Islam

For his part, Abdel Majid el-Nagar, Director of the Research and Studies Center in the Paris-based European Institute of Human Sciences, told IOL that French Muslims represent a minority inside a secular community.

Therefore, he stressed, that idea of the all-inclusive Islam cherished by Muslims in Arab and Islamic countries does not exist in the west.

"Private life Islam has become the general alternative to a comprehensive Islam for the Muslim minority in France. The largest margin of ability to practice Islam for them is in their private lives and inside family," said el-Nagar.

He attributed attempts to exaggerate the danger posed by French Muslims to the country's secularism to Islamophobia which boomed after the 9-11 attacks in the U.S.

Failed Attempts

Leil mosque imam Ammar al-Asfar told IOL that efforts to form a political party representing French Muslims had failed.

Muslims did not realize the importance of having their own educational institutions and secondary schools like Jewish ones until this year.

On Friday, July 11, al-Asfar told IOL that the French government approved the establishment of a secondary Muslim school in Lille, where students would study Arabic and Islamic subjects along with French curricula, in an unprecedented move in France's eventful history.

"Ibn Rushd secondary school was brought to light to meet the demands of around half a million Muslims in the city of Lille," he said.

"We still have an uphill work to do to transfer French Muslims from illiterate immigrants employed in hard labor jobs to cadres serving in the country's cultural, political and social institutions," contended al-Asfar.