University professor elected to lead French Muslim council

By IINA,

Paris : A university professor from Morocco who has pledged to help build more mosques in France was elected yesterday to head the country’s official Muslim council in a vote seen as a fresh start for the body. Mohamed Moussaoui, 44, will replace Dalil Boubakeur, the rector of the Paris Grand mosque, who held the post of president since the council was set up in 2003 to provide a voice for France’s five million Muslims, the largest such community in Europe.


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But the French Council for the Muslim Faith (CFCM), established by President Nicolas Sarkozy when he was interior minister, has been riddled by internal division and is criticised for doing little to help Muslims in their everyday struggles, AFP reports. A mathematician who arrived in France a little over two decades ago, Moussaoui told AFP in an interview that his first priority would be to find new sources of financing for the council to support its ambitions.

“We must take concrete actions, that is what the faithful expect, and focus on a few major issues to win back trust, or else the CFCM will be dead in three years,” said Moussaoui. Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie congratulated Moussaoui – who ran unopposed – saying that he had succeeded in “uniting all of the currents of Islam” in France’s Muslim community.

A professor at Avignon University in southern France, Moussaoui said removing hurdles in the way of building mosques in France was one of his priorities. “There have been improvements in getting construction permits, but there are still problems,” said Moussaoui. The university professor himself had to resort to obtaining a court order to be able to build an extension to the mosque in Avignon.

Moussaoui said the CFCM would carry out more fundraising and appeal to Muslim countries for funds. Other priorities include the appointment of more Muslim prison chaplains, expanding Muslim cemeteries and training more imams. He also pledged to put in place a commission to examine the council’s election rules after the Paris Grand Mosque boycotted the vote in protest at the voting procedures.

The Paris mosque is closely linked to France’s Algerian community which has been traditionally at odds with the Moroccans. Born in Figuig in eastern Morocco, Moussaoui preaches at the Al-Bouhari mosque in Avignon. He has applied for French citizenship.

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