France works to bring Muslims out of cellars, into mainstream

by Elaine Ganley, (AP, December 18, 2002)

Abdelhakim Sefrioui says his evening prayers in a cellar.

He is not alone. Thousands of Muslims around France practice their faith in makeshift underground prayer rooms simply because there aren't enough mosques.

Now France is trying to bring Islam aboveground. The government and Muslim leaders are holding a two-day conference this week to appoint an official body to represent Islam's diverse factions and serve as a link to French officialdom.

The conference, which starts Thursday, is a vital step in the government's efforts to satisfy the needs of Europe's largest Muslim community, address its grievances and thwart the growth of Islamic fundamentalism.

For Sefrioui, the move is long overdue. "Muslims shouldn't have to pray in cellars," said Sefrioui, who manages an Islamic bookstore in eastern Paris. "They should have the right to pray in a dignified place."

But no one is placing bets on whether the effort, initiated by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, will succeed.

The grand mufti of Marseille, Soheib Bencheikh, for example, claimed Sarkozy was putting security concerns over religion. Some others denounced secret negotiations among three main Muslim groups chosen to form the backbone of the representative council.

The infighting underscores the complex reality of Islam in France which, unlike Roman Catholicism or Judaism, has no hierarchical structure and therefore no single representative.

Instead, there are numerous squabbling groups, associations and federations backed variously by Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia — former French colonies — or even Pakistan.

Those appointed to lead the body are the Union of French Islamic Organizations, said by some to be inspired by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, seen as a source of fundamentalism today; a Moroccan-backed Muslim federation; and the Algerian-backed Mosque of Paris.

"For what are undoubtedly security concerns, (Sarkozy) wanted to put fundamentalists inside rather than outside," said Bencheikh, a top representative of moderate Muslims. "Where is the Islam of France?"

Among proponents is 43-year-old Sefrioui. He hopes Islam will finally have a spokesperson, if only because building mosques, a costly and often controversial enterprise, would be made easier.

Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Mosque of Paris and the man expected to become president of the new council, said that France has been ignoring Islam for too long, creating a backlash that feeds extremism.

"Fundamentalism hasn't stopped increasing in France because of all this humiliation, misery of the Muslim religion," Boubakeur said. "The social fracture is hitting Islam in the face ... Human suffering has always put forth poison fruit."

The effort is nothing new. Since 1989, successive governments have tried to anoint an official body to represent France's estimated 5 million Muslims.

Consultations with more than a dozen groups were continuing when Sarkozy surprised everyone with the announcement that an accord had been signed.

Most Muslim groups see benefits to having an official representative, even though it is a government idea.

A representative body "will make Islam visible and get Muslims away from praying in cellars where they feel frustrated and victimized," said Antoine Sfeir, an author and expert on Islam.

Boubakeur says a representative body can only benefit Muslims, and might serve as an example for other European nations.

"There is an Islamic awakening among youths, an activism, while the majority (of Muslims) remain silent," he said. "We need to know what is this Islam in Europe."

Concretely, an official representative could regulate the multimillion dollar market of "halal" meat and other administrative issues, and give Islam respectability and a face.

The state is forbidden from financing mosques, but Boubakeur said he envisions seeking government funds in the same way the state subsidizes Catholic schools.

Jocelyne Cesari, an expert on Muslims in France, says Muslims have been "handicapped on a daily basis" in managing their affairs, a problem a representative would solve.

"But there is clearly a political interest here: knowing the French Muslim landscape — who is doing what, where," added Cesari, visiting professor at Harvard University's Center for Middle East Studies. "To guarantee a certain peace ... that's the deal."

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