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Breze accused "certain parties of working to tarnish the UOIF image before the elections.
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By Hadi Yahmid, IOL Correspondent
PARIS, May 25, 2005 (IslamOnline.net)
– With less than a month to go, elections of the French Council of
Muslim Faith (CFCM) figured high on the coverage of French media which
classifies the Muslim bodies in the country to "radical"
groups that don't serve the Muslim interests and other
"liberal" bodies that represent a brightened face of
"liberal Islam".
French daily Le Monde Tuesday,
May 24, launched a scathing attack against the Union of French Islamic
Organizations (UOIF) – one of two main organizations in the CFCM –
accusing it of "blocking efforts to serve the interests of the
Muslim minority and only working to serve its election
interests".
"The UOIF turned down two fatwas
on polygamy and Muslims' support to the Palestinian struggle issued by
the European Council of Research and Fatwa to serve its own election
interests," the French daily said.
It also claimed that the Union's
thumbs-down of the two fatwas was to "beautify its image before
the French public before the CFCM elections, due on June 19".
"The UOIF wanted to send a clear
message to the French authorities that it is a key player in the CFCM
elections."
The CFCM was established in 2003 and
groups a number of Muslim bodies, the most notably of which are the
UOIF and the Paris Mosque.
Baseless
On its part, the UOIF dismissed the Le
Monde report as "baseless and bare of truth".
"The UOIF did not give the
thumbs-down to the fatwas on polygamy and support of the Palestinian
struggle," UOIF chairman, Lhaj Thami Breze, told IslamOnline.net
Tuesday.
He accused "certain parties of
working to tarnish the UOIF image before the elections to show the
union as if it were tampering with Muslim rights.
The UOIF was established in 1983 by a
group of Moroccan immigrants.
It is usually viewed by the French
media as championing "radical" religious speech in the
European secular country.
The UOIF controls one third of the
45-seat CFCM.
Freeze
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Paris Mosque.
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Similar accusations were also echoed
by the mass-circulation Le Figaro.
"The UOIF is working to freeze
all issues of concern to French Muslims such as halal meals,
pilgrimage and chaplains as it did with the thorny issue of Muslim
prison chaplain," the daily had said Monday.
Earlier this month, two members of
the CFCM's Executive Council, representing the UOIF, resigned in a
demonstration of dissatisfaction with the sidelining of the CFCM in
the appointment of the Muslim prison chaplain.
Over the Muslim protest, the French
Justice Ministry froze plans to appoint a chief Muslim chaplain for
prisons.
However, the French media brand the
Paris mosque, who obtains only five seats in the 45-seat council, as a
brightened symbol to the "liberal Islam".
Criticism
Within the same context, the CFCM is
seen by a number of Islamic bodies in France as a tool for
"consolidating state control over Muslim affairs".
"The coming elections would
bring no new. It would rather consolidate the state control the
Islamic bodies in the country," Daw Meskin, Secretary General of
the French Council of Imams, told IOL.
He stressed that the anti-Muslim
decisions in France such as the hijab ban and imam expulsion were
taken under the watchful eye of the CFCM.
There are some 5-6 million Muslims
living in France, mostly from north African countries and Turkey.
