takeover of Islam in France 
Political scientist Fiammetta Venner, [http://www.prochoix.org/cgi/ blog /] which publishes - Calmann-Levy - "Takeover on Islam of France," says the Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF) is not a movement as respectful ... as she claims to democracy, modernity, secularism ... The Express has encountered in an interview with Jacqueline Remy, Boris Thiolay.
(we found this article after the digest of another work on "Extreme France" which she also directed, based on his thesis at the IEP)
In early 1980, the Union of Islamic Organisations of France (UOIF) was a small circle of students and Islamist activists in exile. Since 2003, this federation of associations has become a privileged interlocutor of the French state for the management of Islam in France. The UOIF is currently one third of seats in the French Council of Muslim Faith (CFCM), the official body established in 2003 by Nicolas Sarkozy, then interior minister. How to explain such a rise in two decades? What are the real intentions of the UOIF and its "parent", the Union of Islamic Organisations in Europe, based in London? What is the actual weight of this movement which draws its references in the literature of the Muslim Brotherhood? In a very detailed survey, published by Calmann-Levy - OPA on Islam in France. The secret ambition of UOIF - Fiammetta Venner, a political scientist and co-founder of Pro Choice magazine, highlights the dark side of the organization and its dangerous liaisons. By exhuming all public documents from the UOIF, by dissecting the official statements and pronouncements of its more discreet key executives, comparing their speech facade archives and historical-political roots of jihadi fringe Islam denounces the hegemonic temptations of a movement that, in reality, represents only a tiny fraction of Muslims in France. Instrumentalization of religion for political purposes, hostility to secularism and integration, hints of anti-Semitism Fatwas bellicose doubtful financing: the ideological matrix of the UOIF is worrisome. While voting for the renewal of the French Muslim Council is scheduled for next June, Fiammetta Venner book exclusively for The Express strengths of its investigation. Contacted several times to give their point of view, the leaders did not wish to speak UOIF .
Why give such importance to an organization like the UOIF? She weighs so dangerously on French society? Since in 2003 he made a contact UOIF state within the French Muslim Council (CFCM), Nicolas Sarkozy claims that it is better to incorporate this trend rather than reject it. My initial question is: who wins in the process, the Republic or UOIF? When Sarkozy called the framework UOIF Muslims "orthodox," we did a bit the same poisoned chalice than Mitterrand with the National Front. He opened the microphones and civil society entrusts the task of creating cons powers. The UOIF movement is not the "orthodox", but the fundamentalist movement in Islam. There is a difference between the radical cult - among Catholic traditionalists, fundamentalists among Protestants, the orthodox Jews - and the radical political fundamentalism. The radical cult is a personal option, a private practice on which nobody has to say. Political radicalism, however, must be a source of debate. We tend to confuse the two, especially when it comes to Islam. The UOIF carries a political radicalism, fundamentalism, and it is a dangerous organization, the more dangerous it claims to embody an Islamic majority in France and Europe. If it indeed represented a third of Muslims of France, as its weight in the CFCM suggests, this would mean that about 3.5 million people potentially Muslims in France, at least 1 million are fundamentalists: that's absurd! There is not 1 million UOIF sympathizers in France.
If UOIF weighs less than you think among the Muslims of France, how is it dangerous? First because it confers the power to artificially represent one third of the Muslim population in France, while it includes more than 150 000 people. Then, because the media overstate: for its annual meetings at Le Bourget, they tend to resume without discussing the figures announced by the UOIF: 3000 participants in 1993, 30,000 in 1994, 75,000 in 2001, 130 000 2004. At the coronation of Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP congress in Le Bourget, there were 40 000 people. When comparing the images of the congress of the UMP and those of the Congress of the UOIF, one can only note that there has never been 40,000 participants this year. Moreover, the newspaper distributed free during the three-day gathering of 2005 was drawn only 15,000 copies. All this has consequences: when Dominique de Villepin announced his intention to establish additional training for 1,500 imams in France, he intends to give half of the course at the Mosque of Paris - in fact very active - and the other UOIF half, the third major partner of the CFCM, the National Federation of Muslims of France, having no school. This implies that at least 750 French imams will pass into the hands of the UOIF, which until now has never trained more than 15 per year! It borders on absurdity. I prefer a thousand times Arabic imam who fought against the Islamist Algerian imam trained by French UOIF. First, the UOIF blocks any theological discussion by referring only to the doctrine of the Muslim Brotherhood. She also has total control over the European Council for Fatwa - religious executive of the Union of Islamic Organisations in Europe (UOIE), so of London-based parent company - which provides advice on how Europe's Muslims should behave, fatwas denying the right of women rejecting abortion, justifying suicide bombings.
Yet UOIF proclaims modernist. Is it, as you report, a double talk, soothing when he speaks to the authorities and public opinion, radical activists when he apostrophe? For proof, simply refer to a statement from Ahmed Jaballah, cofounder of the UOIF, which still sits in the device manager: "The UOIF is a two-stage rocket. The first floor is democratic, the second will orbit an Islamic society. "Leaders of the UOIF have clear objectives and a strategy of conquest. This organization has set policies towards Arab and Muslim countries. Since its inception, the UOIF wanted to make France a rear base: a place where Islamic militants could find refuge and where they are trying to change the gaze of public opinion in their countries of origin. But UOIF claims particularly rein in the Muslims of France. Some associations affiliated to the movement are given the right to say that is a good Muslim and, therefore, is an apostate. This amounts to cast aspersions on any individual or family in terms of a community. This is particularly alarming that these people are not theologians - almost none of the leaders of the UOIF has been studied extensively in the field - and have a very narrow vision of Islam. They are content to exploit religion for the benefit of a political reactionary referred to: that's right, fundamentalism. For example, in Bordeaux, Oubrou Tariq, chief of the imams of the UOIF, was ousted during the debate on the sailing. Why? Because it recognizes that the veil is a limitation, not a divine command. The only hadith (Asma) referring to the obligation of the veil for women is not, according Oubrou, "authentic." We can make Islam, like all religions, the worst or the best. The UOIF has not chosen to do the best, far from it.
What are its spiritual and doctrinal references? This movement is genealogically problematic. The UOIF was founded in 1983 by followers of two Islamist groups. On the one hand, fans of Rachid Ghannouchi, Tunisian Islamist Group creator Ennadha and disciple of the Muslim Brotherhood who was expelled from his country and banned from France, took refuge in England in 1991. In another, fans Faisal Mawlawi, a Lebanese Muslim Brother who has lived in France, participated in the founding of the Association of Islamic Students in France (AEFI) and is now responsible for Jamaat Islamiyya, a terrorist organization in Lebanon.
What are the characters who demonstrate a direct link between the UOIF and the Muslim Brotherhood? The first brochures translated into French UOIF came from Leicester Foundation, which broadcasts mainly three thinkers: Hassan al-Banna founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1920s, Egypt , Sayyid Qutb theorist of jihad for the Muslim Brotherhood, hanged in 1966 and Mawdudi Pakistani thinker who advocated the establishment of an Islamic state in the Indian subcontinent . Another key figure highlights the link between the UOIF and the Muslim Brotherhood: Youssef al-Qaradhawi, mentor of the Muslim Brotherhood and head of the European Council for Fatwa and training institute for imams UOIF. In addition, the representative of the Union of Islamic Organisations in Europe (UOIE), Ahmed al-Rawi, is the official ambassador of the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. Besides, when we detail the organizational structure of UOIE, we see that almost all frames are French, and members the UOIF. At the time of the crisis of hostages held in Iraq, we saw a report by BBC 1's mission of good offices by a delegation of the CFCM in Baghdad. This report included an illuminating sequence: a mosque, a senior Salafi refused to meet the delegation and asked why France was sending emissaries to the Muslim Brotherhood! Yet UOIF fights to maintain direct links with the Muslim Brotherhood ... It depends where. His pamphlets remind his connections with them. Thus, in a document entitled "Critical for a Muslim organization, the UOIF denounced the" heretics " who reject Ibn Taymiyyah, Mohammed Ibn Abdelwahab, Sayyid Qutb and Yusuf al-Qaradhawi. These four theorists, who are their own theological references, are among the most radical fundamentalist Islam. The latter two are of the Muslim Brotherhood. But the ultimate proof comes from the Muslim Brothers themselves. When asked Egyptian brothers, "Who are your representatives in Europe?", They reply: "The European Council for Fatwa." More inspiring still, in a fit of naivete or franchise, Farid Abdelkrim, former president of the Young Muslims in France, a close association of the UOIF, says that the first thing that he was taught when he entered the UOIF is the thought of Hassan al-Banna ... On several occasions, leaders of the UOIF have publicly stated: "The Koran is our constitution." It's literally the motto of the Muslim Brotherhood! This proximity
translate it by a financial assistance? The UOIF Finance Committee and supports the charitable and relief to Palestinians (CBSP), which raises funds for Hamas, Palestinian armed organization inspired by the teachings of the Muslim Brotherhood. A photograph, you can see the heads of the UOIF show how one can donate money for CBSP, whose stands are well placed to each congress Bourget and leaflets distributed. Money is, they say, for the families of Palestinian orphans. But how are the parents of those dead orphans? The CBSP also helps financially child "martyrs" killed in suicide attacks by Hamas.
But the CBSP is a legal association which also funds hospitals, schools and humanitarian projects. Of course, but it is not because an association is legal it is not objectionable. Many associations support the Palestinians without being linked to Hamas. An example would be the work of Handicap International, the Red Crescent, Doctors without borders. But these are not those supported and recommended by the UOIF.
Who is Yusuf al-Qaradhawi, which you describe as the mentor of the UOIF __ It is one of the few Muslim Brotherhood today to be a theologian. He dedicated his thesis to the Zakat, the alms in Islam, and has found a way to make Islamically correct the loan, which allows people of the Gulf of doing business while Islam - like Christianity of the first time - prohibits usury. Instead of borrowing money for a product, a Muslim asked the bank to buy the product and resell it to more expensive monthly payments. The equivalent differential about the interest paid would have a client in a non-Muslim bank. At the head of a colossal fortune, Al-Qaradhawi is the religious adviser of most major banks in the Islamic world. Preacher on the TV channel Al-Jazeera, he preaches a very rigorous and radical Islam politically. Today, Al-Qaradhawi is president of the European Council for Fatwa and spiritual all at once UOIF and Tariq Ramadan. He considers himself in Europe as in mission lands.
What links UOIF with the Union of Islamic Organisations in Europe (UOIE)? It is the parent whose UOIF need to issue fatwas on European Muslims who, in France, would fall under the law. The fatwas issued by UOIE does indeed concern that Muslims in Europe and can not be taken into account in Islamic countries. In other words, think that the European Council for Fatwa (religious body's) could provide a model for modernizing the Muslim world is an oxymoron. Within the council, theologians can even take part that they would never vote in their country of origin. No instance in the Islamic world - or Al-Azhar (Egypt) or Fez (Morocco) or Qom (Iran) - has issued a fatwa supporting suicide bombings. The European Council the fatwa, he, did (July 28, 2003, Stockholm), saying he could no longer call these actions of "suicide bombing" but "acts of martyrs" because "son of Zion - is it all Israelis or Jews? - Are "soldiers". For the European Council for Fatwa, no son of Zion can not be considered a civilian! Here, we are no longer in support, but incitement to terrorism!
What is the content of speech UOIF concerning social life in Europe? There is a double discourse. On secularism, UOIF expresses "100% agree with the law," but Members were assured the service order of protests against the headscarf ban in schools and denounced the law on the board of Al-Jazeera, even going so far as to say that Muslim women were not allowed to wear the veil in the streets of Paris ... In short, they agree with the law on secularism, if it authorizes the wearing of headscarves in school! Double talk also about anti-Semitism: the example UOIF had promised to withdraw CRIF selling a cassette of one of its preachers, Iquioussen Hassan, was anti-Semitic remarks. Eight months later, the tape was still distributed by bookstores UOIF. However, on coeducation, women's status, relations with non-Muslims, their speech is clear. Preachers of the UOIF Iquioussen as proscribing the mix, including Web: It is forbidden for a boy to communicate with a woman over the Internet. In this regard, Iquioussen said: "You think you're alone with her, because it is a dialogue to 500 miles apart, but in reality you are three: the two of you and the devil." Other sermons recommend Muslims not to mix with non-Muslims to beware of "integration through the ham," a sin. A number of tapes from the UOIF also prohibit abortion, while Islam permits in certain cases. Again, they are theologians, then they are just trying to put women's political trust.
The UOIF, which brings together youth groups, students, women, did she not a real social weight? Its leaders seek above all to appear with governments such as those that crisscross the land. This was particularly evident in 2003, just before the elections of the CFCM. The Muslim Students of France (EMF) were very active, especially in distributing meals to students cited U. Once the election is over, they disappeared from many campuses. For its part, the French League of Muslim Women publishes a newspaper, Le Petit Muslim, distributed to children in religious education, which has only thought of the Muslim Brotherhood. Most associations have no real existence, and when they do, they spread values are incompatible with a secular and democratic.
Yet UOIF trying to rid Islam of its local traditions ...__ No. She wants to return to an earlier message. The traditional practice of Islam - especially in the Maghreb - is often less radical than that demanded by the UOIF. She dreams of "bédouiniser" Islam, according expression Soheib Bencheikh.
How UOIF funded? Initially, the UOIF was funded by Sheikh Zayyed former president of the Supreme Council of UAE . Today it is mainly financed by the Al Maktoum Foundation, named after the family of the Emir of Dubai, and mosques are built with donations from major sponsors of the Gulf. The leaders of the UOIF say that its funds only 30% do not originate from overseas. But be aware that when Amir gives $ 10 000 in Paris, UOIF consider this funding French. If Al-Qaradhawi asks for money to one of his former students, he will get it, and no one ever dares to ask the destination of these funds. The great patrons of the Gulf do not care to know what are their gifts. What matters to them is to pay 10% of their income to comply with the principle of charity law.
Who, what for are these funds? The UOIF supports financially lawyers veiled girls who attack the state court order to wear the veil at school. But the main expense is to buy and build premises to gain importance: elections the CFCM is based on the size of each organization's mosques or Muslim federation in France. It has more square meters, more available to voters, and the more politically accountable.
So the CFCM would rely on a radical organization and a very small minority among Muslims, at the risk of giving inordinate prestige? Chirac has demanded, through the CFCM, as liberal Muslims go drink tea once a week with Muslim radicals. In this structure, the UOIF never fell on any of its principles. However, it was regularly asked Dalil Boubaker, rector of the Paris Mosque and president of the CFCM, read news co-authored with UOIF. In fact, this organization has taken power in the CFCM: from the outset, it was agreed that Fouad Alaoui, secretary general of the UOIF, would have the vice-presidency. Finally, it has 3.5 million Muslims sacrificed to the ambitions of the most politically radical fringe. As the voting to renew for the CFCM has not changed, UOIF should still get its game in the coming elections, given the fact that it has continued to acquire square meters. So who in the Republic or UOIF, won? Postscript Of the 41 elected members of the French Muslim Council (appointed in April 2003 by only 4,042 electors), UOIF won 13 seats. Which puts it in second place, behind the National Federation of Muslims of France (pro-Moroccan, 16 elected), but before the Mosque of Paris (under the influence of Algeria, 6 seats). The Turks, the independent and meetings will share the last 6 posts.
The Dark Side of the UOIF. Interview with Fiammetta Venner by Jacqueline Remy, Boris Thiolay (L'Express)
