It took a terrorist incident to bring it to light. The 1994 hijacking of an Air France flight by Algerian Muslims revealed a rising anger among Islamic fundamentalists in France. Since then, this "basement Islam," as French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy coined it, has grown in influence. Efforts by the government to control the movement by arresting militants with links to Chechen terrorists and al Qaeda have been insufficient. Just last week, French police found bottles of the poison ricin in one of Paris' main train stations, supposedly stored there by a terror network.
Now, the French are trying a new, controversial tactic. During the first two weeks of April, the first leaders will be elected to a newly created French Council for the Muslim Cult [FCMC], an umbrella organization of 18 elected and appointed representatives of different associations and mosques in France.
For the first time, a single nationwide organization officially recognized by the French government will speak for the country's 5 million Muslims. Protestant and Jewish groups have had similar councils for 100 years. The diverse group of French Muslims is now the Continent's largest and the country's second-biggest religious constituency after Roman Catholics.
"SYMBOLIC TIMES." The FCMC will serve as a forum for debate on issues pertaining to the practice of Islam. The Muslim community is divided between religious conservatives and progressives, who disagree on key issues. One area of contention: whether and how hard to fight for the right of Muslim girls and women to wear the hijab, or Islamic veil, which is now prohibited in French schools.
Another issue at the top of the council's list will be creating new mosques. France now has only five structures built expressly as mosques, compared with some 40,000 Catholic churches. The lack of mosques leaves most Muslims using 1,550 Muslim prayer spaces around France that are often improvised in basements and can usually accommodate fewer than 100 people. Other issues the council will face include building chaplaincies in the army and prisons, and acquiring more Muslim burial sites.
With tensions in the Middle East at a boiling point, the French attempt to give its Muslim constituency legitimacy has the support of other religious groups. "These are symbolic times," says Jean-Arnold de Clermont, the president of France's Protestant Federation. "We need to put an end to the so-called confrontation of the Christian West with the Muslim East." Among other things, the FCMC will attempt to improve the dialogue with other religious federations.
TOO MANY AGENDAS? A spokesman of the Paris Mosque stresses the difference between the Muslim community on the one hand and Muslim religious affairs on the other. The council will represent only believers who actively participate in the network of mosques and Muslim associations in France. "It is time for the Muslims to constitute a regional and national institution in order to solve, with governmental representatives, the problems related to the practice of Islam," says the spokesman. The organization will deal primarily with administrative and legal issues. It won't get involved in telling Muslims how to practice their faith.
Still, it won't be easy to pull the council together. Three years ago, talks to establish a nationwide Muslim federation in France broke down because too many different parties were pushing their own agendas. The government can't afford another defeat in the process, especially with war in Iraq straining relations with the European Muslim constituency. Sarkozy, the hardline Minister who has cracked down on crime in France, has called everyone to the table once again. The pressure is on for him to reassure French citizens and ease the social tensions felt by its religious communities.
Not everyone welcomes this change. With secularism enshrined in its constitution, France has had a long history of keeping religion out of policymaking, and skeptics worry that the new organization won't respect that tradition. For one, Jean-Marie Matisson, President of the Committee for a Secular Republic, describes Sarkozy as a man with "a perverse attitude towards secularism." Matisson thinks Sarkozy has transgressed his mandate that required him only to supervise the council's development, not to be responsible for it, since the council will not be part of the government.
HEALING THE BREACH. Matisson worries that the FCMC will increase the influence of fundamentalist movements in France. He bases his claim on alleged links between the Union of Islamic Organizations of France [UIOF], the third-largest French-Muslim association, and Saudi and Egyptian terrorist groups. Betoule Fekkar-Lambiotte, a female representative offered a seat on the council, resigned on similar grounds as a protest against the UIOF's participation in the new organization.
France, however, isn't the first country to establish such a council. Britain's 2 million Muslims benefit from a similar institution, called the Muslim Council of Britain.
Whatever problems the council carries with it, having no Muslim organization at all could be worse in these times of high tension, supporters argue. In the Netherlands, where the Muslim community has a strong presence, conflicts have erupted in the absence of such a group. Many Dutch Muslims were outraged last October, for instance, when the government of The Netherlands said the country's 800,000 Muslims should speak only Dutch in mosques.
The government hopes the FCMC will be able to resolve similar disputes behind closed doors. The idea is to avoid public outcry and mounting religious divisions, or at least that's what the government hopes. And for a country with a growing Muslim population, establishing clear lines of communication is well worth a try.