French Government Dissolves Official Muslim Umbrella Organization Due to Foreign Influence

French media is report­ing that the French gov­ern­ment will dis­solve an umbrel­la orga­ni­za­tion that act­ed as an inter­locu­tor between the gov­ern­ment and Mus­lim lead­ers. Accord­ing to the gov­ern­ment, the orga­ni­za­tion was under too much for­eign influ­ence and will be replaced by a “forum.” Accord­ing to the RFI report:

Feb­ru­ary 1^st, 2022: In what’s being described as a deci­sive peri­od for Islam in France, the French Coun­cil of the Mus­lim Faith (Cfcm) – an offi­cial inter­locu­tor between the gov­ern­ment and reli­gious lead­ers – is to be dis­solved and replaced with a grass­roots-style “forum”. The Forum of the Islam of France (Forif), to be launched by Pres­i­dent Emmanuel Macron on 5 Feb­ru­ary, is a com­plex process that will take place in the same venue where a Cit­i­zens Cli­mate Assem­bly was set up to advise the gov­ern­ment on its strat­e­gy to mit­i­gate glob­al warm­ing. “We want to launch a rev­o­lu­tion, try­ing to put an end to con­sular Islam, Inte­ri­or Min­is­ter Gérald Dar­manin told dai­ly news­pa­per Le Parisien. “Islam is not a reli­gion of for­eign­ers in France, but a French reli­gion that should not depend on mon­ey or for­eign author­i­ties.” Author­i­ties had been work­ing with the Cfcm, an elect­ed body, since for­mer pres­i­dent Nico­las Sarkozy was in pow­er, but Dar­manin said the coun­cil was no longer ful­fill­ing its role because it had come under the influ­ence of too much con­sular inter­fer­ence. Media reports say the Coun­cil has been in its death throes for years, under­mined by inter­nal dis­sent, the grow­ing influ­ence of coun­tries such as Turkey, and rad­i­cal ele­ments. The sign­ing of a char­ter of sec­u­lar­ism at the begin­ning of 2021 did not meet with con­sen­sus with­in the body, with three fed­er­a­tions refus­ing to adopt it. Ana­lysts say that bury­ing the long-stand­ing Cfcm and bet­ting on a new style of organ­i­sa­tion clos­er to ordi­nary Mus­lims is a bold move for Macron.

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As demon­strat­ed by GIOR’s Novem­ber 2020 analy­sis of the French Coun­cil of the Mus­lim Faith (Con­seil Français Du Culte Musul­man, CFCM), many of the orga­ni­za­tions with­in it are tied to for­eign and transna­tion­al influ­ence actors, notably Moroc­co, Alge­ria, and Turkey, as well as the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood and the Tab­ligh movement.