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The Elysee Palace announced that President Emmanuel Macron received, on Wednesday night, November 19, officials of the Islamic religion in France, who, at his request, presented him with the guidelines for the formation of a national council of imams in charge to issue credits to Muslim clerics in France and withdraw them when necessary.
The French presidency said that Macron also asked his interlocutors to draft a “charter of republican values” within 15 days that the French Council of the Islamic Faith and the nine federations that comprise it must abide by. The presidency stressed that Macron gave Parliament officials a period of two weeks to prepare this letter, confirming the information published by the newspapers Le Figaro and Le Parisien.
The president asked his interlocutors to include a statement in the letter of recognition of the values of the republic, specifying that Islam in France is a religion and not a political movement, and stipulating the end of interference or affiliation with countries foreign. The meeting was attended by the president of the French Council of the Islamic Faith, Mohamed Moussaoui, the dean of the Paris Mosque, Shams El Din Hafez, as well as representatives of the nine federations that make up the French Council of the Islamic Religion.
Since his speech in early October against separatism and extremist Islam and after the two jihadist attacks that killed teacher Samuel Patty near Paris and three people died in a cathedral in Nice (southeast), Macron has increased his pressure on the leaders of the Islamic religion in France to purify it of foreign influence and extremism. And political trends. Macron hopes, behind the formation of the National Council of Magnets, to end in four years with the presence of 300 foreign imams in France “with scholarships” from Turkey, Morocco and Algeria.
In his meeting with the leaders of the Islamic religion, Macron told representatives of the nine federations affiliated to the French Council of Islamic Religion that he knows that several of them have ambiguous positions on these issues, stressing that it is necessary “to get out of this confusion. “. Of these nine unions, which represent a large part of Muslims in France, there are three that do not adopt a “republican vision”, according to the Elysee. Macron warned his interlocutors that “in the event that some do not sign this letter, we will draw conclusions,” noting that he “took note of their proposals.”
The Council of Imams will not only be authorized to grant imams permits and give them an official card, but will also be able to withdraw these cards from them if they violate the “Charter of the Republic’s values” and a moral code to be agreed. Depending on the role of each of them: a prayer imam, a mosque preacher and a preacher, each imam should be familiar with a different level of French and possess academic degrees that can reach the university level. The adherence of the French Council of the Islamic Faith to this initiative would be a victory for Macron, who was subjected to violent attacks for his statements about radical Islam.
