Collective Against Islamophobia In France

The Col­lec­tif Con­tre l’Islamophobie en France (CCIF) was a French Islam­o­pho­bia watch group and Islamist influ­ence oper­a­tion with strong ties to orga­ni­za­tions part of the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood (GMB) in Europe. Found­ed in 2003, the CCIF described itself as a „human rights orga­ni­za­tion” whose mis­sion was to “com­bat Islam­o­pho­bia.” In 2016, a for­mer French Inte­ri­or min­is­ter described the CCIF as “being in the orbit of the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood” and in the style of Tariq Ramadan, the son-in-law of the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood founder.

CCIF’s efforts includ­ed pas­sion­ate defens­es of the Islam­ic head­scarf and cam­paigns against sec­u­lar­ism. They also includ­ed joint projects with the Fed­er­a­tion of Mus­lim Youth and Stu­dent Orga­ni­za­tions (FEMYSO) and appear­ing at con­fer­ences of the Insti­tut Européen des Sci­ences Humaines. In 2018, the CCIF joint­ly co-orga­nized a con­fer­ence in Istan­bul on “Com­bat­ting Islam­o­pho­bia” with the AKP, the Islamist polit­i­cal par­ty of Turk­ish Pres­i­dent Erdoğan. The CCIF also was a mem­ber of the Euro­pean Net­work Against Racism (ENAR), an asso­ci­a­tion of over 150 NGOs describ­ing itself as “the voice of the anti-racist move­ment in Europe” and whose for­mer leader open­ly acknowl­edged that he had been a mem­ber of the Mus­lim Brotherhood.

In 2020, the CCIF was dis­solved by the French gov­ern­ment, which des­ig­nat­ed it as an “ene­my of the repub­lic” and accused it of asso­ci­at­ing with Islamism and min­i­miz­ing ter­ror­ism. Before, the CCIF had been the sub­ject of a media storm, being accused of tak­ing part in a social media cam­paign against a French his­to­ry teacher who was behead­ed after show­ing his class car­i­ca­tures of the Prophet Muham­mad as part of a class on free speech. After the dis­so­lu­tion, the Coun­cil on Amer­i­can-Islam­ic Rela­tions (CAIR), an impor­tant part of the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, said it offered office space and logis­ti­cal resources to the group. In 2021, CCIF announced it had regrouped in neigh­bor­ing Bel­gium under a new name.