FEMYSO Slams French Report on Islamism as ‘Exclusionary’

The Forum of Euro­pean Mus­lim Youth and Stu­dent Orga­ni­za­tions (FEMYSO) has denounced a recent French report on Islamist entrysim, crit­i­ciz­ing its “exclu­sion­ary nar­ra­tive” and say­ing it attacked Mus­lim civ­il soci­ety. On 21 May 2025, FEMYSO pub­lished a strong­ly-word­ed pub­lic state­ment via its web­site. The state­ment begins:

FEMYSO denounces the recent French report for its exclu­sion­ary nar­ra­tive and its attack on Mus­lim civ­il soci­ety. The report, pub­lished by the French gov­ern­ment, sin­gles out Mus­lim orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­u­als, per­pet­u­at­ing harm­ful stereo­types and under­min­ing the legit­i­mate work of civ­il soci­ety actors. FEMYSO express­es deep con­cern over the stigma­ti­za­tion and mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion of Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ties, warn­ing that such nar­ra­tives fuel dis­crim­i­na­tion and social divi­sion. The orga­ni­za­tion calls on Euro­pean insti­tu­tions and civ­il soci­ety part­ners to reject exclu­sion­ary rhetoric and to sup­port inclu­sive, rights-based approach­es. FEMYSO reaf­firms its com­mit­ment to defend­ing the rights and dig­ni­ty of all com­mu­ni­ties, empha­siz­ing the impor­tance of sol­i­dar­i­ty and mutu­al respect.

Read more: https://femyso.org/press-release-femyso-denounces-french-reports-exclusionary-narrative-and-attack-on-muslim-civil-society/

Key Points

• FEMYSO denounced a recent French gov­ern­ment report on Islamism as hav­ing an “exclu­sion­ary nar­ra­tive,” call­ing it harm­ful to Mus­lim civ­il soci­ety and com­mu­ni­ty cohesion.

• The state­ment warned that the report per­pet­u­at­ed stereo­types and increased the risk of dis­crim­i­na­tion and social division.

• FEMYSO urged Euro­pean insti­tu­tions to reject exclu­sion­ary rhetoric and sup­port rights-based, inclu­sive approaches.

• The orga­ni­za­tion reaf­firmed its com­mit­ment to defend­ing the rights and dig­ni­ty of all com­mu­ni­ties in Europe.

The Global Muslim Brotherhood vs. France: Government Action Against Islamist Groups

French gov­ern­ment action against Islamism has accel­er­at­ed in recent years, as offi­cials have repeat­ed­ly warned of “entry­ism” by Islamist groups. A recent gov­ern­ment report on the issue pre­sent­ed to Pres­i­dent Macron has high­light­ed infil­tra­tion risks posed by net­works such as the Fed­er­a­tion of Mus­lims of France. Polit­i­cal fig­ures from across the polit­i­cal spec­trum, includ­ing far-right fire­brand Marine Le Pen, have called for a ban on the French Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, inten­si­fy­ing scruti­ny of orga­ni­za­tions linked to the move­ment.

The gov­ern­ment has also tak­en deci­sive legal steps, with the dis­so­lu­tion of the Col­lec­tif Con­tre l’Islamophobie en France (CCIF) upheld by the high­est admin­is­tra­tive court, sig­nal­ing a will­ing­ness to use admin­is­tra­tive mea­sures against groups per­ceived as Islamist influ­ence oper­a­tions. The French state has cut off state sup­port from orga­ni­za­tions and schools tied to Islamist move­ments, such as when it end­ed fund­ing for a major Mus­lim high school linked to the Broth­er­hood. Even legal chal­lenges from affect­ed insti­tu­tions, like the court bat­tle over the Al-Kin­di school’s con­tract ter­mi­na­tion, have not deterred author­i­ties from pur­su­ing poli­cies aimed at dis­man­tling Islamist infrastructure.

These devel­op­ments are unfold­ing amid a wider Euro­pean debate on sec­u­lar­ism, inte­gra­tion, and reli­gious free­dom, with France’s approach set­ting prece­dents that rever­ber­ate across the con­ti­nent and draw­ing both con­cern and sup­port for its impact on civ­il lib­er­ties, nation­al iden­ti­ty, and the future of Mus­lim representation.

Exter­nal References:

• Mus­lim Broth­er­hood move­ment pos­es ‘threat to nation­al cohe­sion’, French govt report says

• Macron launch­es crack­down on ‘Islamist sep­a­ratism’ in Mus­lim communities

• France Islam: Mus­lims under pres­sure to sign French val­ues charter

Dis­claimer:

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.