 |
Boubakeur is not expected to get a third term in office. (IOL Photo) |
PARIS — French Muslims want new blood injected into the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), the country's main representative body, to redress deficiencies and wipe the slate clean.
"Five years after the council came into being, it is time for a second reading to its policies," Larbi Kechat, the rector of the Ad Dawa mosque in Paris, told IslamOnline.net.
"The outgoing councilors admit deficiency, which makes more pressing the need to redress shortcomings."
The council was created in 2003, with the support of then Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, to represent the sizable minority of nearly seven million before the government.
On June 8, the CFCM will hold its third general elections, which will see some 5,232 mosque representatives casting the ballot to choose a 65-member general assembly.
Fourteen days later the new assembly will elect 17 members to the council's board, who in turn will elect a president.
Incumbent CFCM president Dalil Boubakeur, the rector of Paris Grand Mosque, has expressed a desire to run for a third three-year term.
But sources privy to the council's circles say he does not enjoy enough support for a new tenure.
They are particularly critical of the CFCM's poor achievements over the past five years and its mishandling of key Muslim issues like hijab and Islamophobia.
Many members believe it did not respond properly the reprinting of Danish cartoons lampooning Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) in 2006.
Had it not been for Sarkozy's staunch backing in 2005, Boubakeur would not have been reelected.
New Blood
Haydar Demiryurek, the deputy head of CFCM, and Foad Alawi, deputy head of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF), have already announced their election bids.
Alawi stands the chance of a landslide victory thanks to the great leverage wielded by the UOIF at many of France's mosques.
But he will not get the crucial state backing, which could represent a stumbling bloc to his election, over the UOIF's reported links to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Demiryurek, however, is could win favor with state officials who see him as "liberal and open minded" as Boubakeur.
Well-placed sources say that Demiryurek, who has Turkish origin, is not very popular among the council's incumbent board members, only three of them are of Turkish background.
But Demiryurek, the head of the Steering Committee of France's Turks, plays down the ethnic factor.
"We are French Muslims at the end of the day," he told IOL.
"The country of origin is supposed to be a secondary issue," he insists.
"What's really important is one's vision and future projects for the welfare of French Muslims."
|
