Three Islamic federations have agreed to sign the French government’s proposed “Charter of Principles of Islam of France” after resisting signing the document for at least a year.
The Turkish federations of the Coordination Committee of Turkish Muslims of France (CCMTF), Millî Görüs, and the Faith and Practice movement released a joint statement this week saying they would sign the document, which aims to get the groups to renounce political Islam and end foreign interference in French Muslim life.
The groups agreed to sign the charter after French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced earlier in the month that the French Council of Muslim Worship (CFCM) was “dead” following a breakdown of dialogue between the CFCM and the French government, BFMTV reports.
“Today the CFCM, that is to say, the representation of consular Islam – Moroccans, Algerians – is dead. The CFCM, for the public authorities, for the French Republic, no longer exists, is no longer the interlocutor of the Republic,” Darmanin said.
Last November the CFCM had been given two weeks by the government of President Emmanuel Macron to agree to sign the values charter, with the French president telling the groups, “There will be those who sign and those who will not sign. We’ll learn from it. Either you are with the Republic or you are not with the Republic.”
While several groups eventually agreed to sign the charter, the CCMTF, Millî Görüş and Faith and Practice all stated in February that they would reject signing and outlined their own proposed amendments and issues with the document, such as rejecting terms like “Islam of France.”
“The different religious conceptions that would arise from it would then be considered as different religions. Thus, the concept of ‘Islam of France’, inducing a distinction from Islam at the national level, would not be a valid denomination,” the three groups said at the time.
The groups had also questioned the term “political Islam” saying, “Some definitions have been put forward, but they are extremely problematic, sometimes criminalising religious practices that are part of the common foundation of Islam and which are guaranteed by the Constitution.”
The values charter is part of President Macron’s long term goals to reform Islam in France, something President Macron has spoken about since at least 2018 when he vowed to reform major Islamic bodies as well as the training of imams in France.
Following the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty last year by a Chechen refugee, the French government has moved to crack down on radical mosques, closing several mosques over the last year and investigating dozens of others.
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