"CFCM will also work on eliminating many obstacles that face mosque-building and selling of halal meat," Boubakeur told IOL.

By Hadi Yahmid, IOL Correspondent

PARIS, June 27, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) - Following his reelection as president of the umbrella French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM), Dalil Boubakeur vowed that fighting Islamophobia and anti-Muslim discrimination would top the agenda.

"CFCM will also work on eliminating many obstacles that face mosque-building and selling of halal meat," Boubakeur told IOL after his reelection.

He said the CFCM, the official representative body of the French Muslim minority, will also help French Muslims travel to Saudi Arabia for Hajj and `Umrah and provide Muslim chaplains for jails and hospitals.

Forty eight of the 65-member CFCM board voted Sunday, June 26, in favor of Boubakeur, the only candidate for the post he held for the last three years.

French President Jacques Chirac hailed the reelection of Boubakeur, saying it had made possible the "bringing together of all sensibilities in a spirit of dialogue".

The Elysee Palace said Chirac had telephoned the CFCM president to congratulate him.

Boubakeur, the rector of Paris Grand Mosque, is widely seen as a moderate with close relations with the government.

His slate won secured 10 seats out of the 45 up for grabs in the CFCM elections last week, swept by the National Federation of French Muslims (FNMF) which garnered 19 seats.

Representatives of the different Islamic societies in the CFCM and those of the French Interior Ministry were locked in heated debates, hours before the voting, to decide on each society’s share of seats in the CFCM’s executive council.

Around midday, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy addressed the Muslim representatives, calling on them to bear their responsibilities in cursing the CFCM to success.

The charismatic 50-year-old paid a visit late Saturday, June 25, to the headquarters of the Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF) to dissuade the group from walking out of the CFCM.

The meeting continued till midnight, according to IOL's correspondent.

The UOIF, which only ten seats in the CFCM elections, has threatened to quit the umbrella group, protesting voting irregularities.

Sarkozy also mobilized the UOIF's support for Boubakeur's reelection.

The CFCM’s board also elected its 17-member executive council which groups representatives from the different Islamic societies and organizations.

The French government sponsored the launch of the CFCM in 2003 to create national and regional leaderships able to deal with state officials about problems Islam faces in the western European country.

According to its statute, the CFCM deals with the religious aspects of Muslim life in France, such as the construction of mosques, training of imams and nomination of chaplains for hospitals, prisons and the military.

France is home to some six to seven million Muslims, the largest Muslim minority in Europe.