PARIS,
November 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - France has rejected
a US-based Jewish group's call for legal action against one of the
country's largest Muslim organizations that it said was anti-Semitic.
Interior
Minister Dominique de Villepin declined to follow up a call by the
Simon Wiesenthal Center to probe links between the Union of French
Islamic Organizations (UOIF) and pro-Palestinian groups it says
collect money for Hamas and to replace the UOIF leadership, Reuters
news agency reported.
“We
must avoid stigmatizing anyone or jumping to conclusions,” he told
Europe 1 radio Sunday, November 7. “It's clear the state is being
tough, but it's not its role to jump to conclusions.”
De
Villepin said Paris is making everything in its power to combat any
anti-Semitic motives.
The
Wiesenthal Center's Paris office urged the government two weeks ago to
launch a probe “leading to the dismantling and possible condemnation
of this organization’s current leadership and its replacement by
more moderate voices of French Islam”.
Its
director Shimon Samuels said the UOIF was “a radical political
organization” linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and linked the Union
to a pro-Hamas group banned in the United States.
Samuels
also provided texts from a forum on the UOIF Web site which he said
documented anti-Semitic views it condoned.
Anti-Integration
Hitting
back, UOIF Secretary General Fouad Alaoui accused the Center of
wanting to block the integration of Muslims into French society.
“I
defy anyone to prove the UOIF has anti-Semitic positions,” said
Alaoui.
He
said he would welcome a probe because it would show “that there are
people here in France who don't want Islam to be established legally
or Muslims to be seen as full citizens.”
Israel,
in effect, has been making too much ado recently about what it called
anti-Semitism, using it, according to observers and media experts, as
a pretext to pursue its goals and muzzle freedom of expression in
other countries.
