By KUNA,
Paris : French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie is to hold talks later Tuesday with major leaders of Frances Muslim community, the Interior Ministry said.
Alliot-Marie will receive the recently-elected President of the French Council for the Muslim Faith (CFCM), Mohammed Mussawi, and she will also receive representatives of the Regional Councils of the Muslim Faith (CRCM), a statement said.
The agenda is expected to cover a variety of topics including the growing need, and chronic shortage in some areas, of more Mosques for the Muslim faithful.
In some cases, Muslims are forced to use cellars and insalubrious premises for prayer. Also, planning permission for mosques in certain areas has been blocked by local authorities. The need for more imams and the conditions of training for these Imams is also an ongoing topic of discussion between French authorities and Muslim leaders here.
France has been eager to encourage imams that are trained in France and familiar with French society in order to better promote the goal of integration of the Muslim community and to avoid “foreign” imams promoting segregation or even radicalism.
Training programs have already begun for about 20 imams and the discussions Tuesday will no doubt be an opportunity to review progress so far.
Other issues to be addressed could include the need to provide more space for Muslims in cemeteries across France. Muslim leaders here have often complained of shortages of space in cemeteries.
Racist attacks against Muslim and several incidents of desecration of Muslim graves in France this year could also be addressed, particularly in light of last weekends shooting of three Muslims leaving a Mosque in Corsica.
The three youths were shot at from a passing car and one is seriously injured and risks losing an eye. Two men have been arrested in connection with the incident.
The CFCM was founded in May 2003 under the stewardship of now President Nicolas Sarkozy when he was Frances Interior Ministry at the time, and the Council is an instrument for dialogue with the French authorities regarding Islamic affairs here.
There are an estimated six million Muslims in France out of a population of just over 60 million and most come from the Maghreb or West Africa.