The President of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, Dalil Boubaker, called Saturday, April 4 to double the number of mosques in two years to address the lack of places of worship for the millions of French Muslims. The question is recurrent but the announcement had the desired effect by reviving the debate. Interview with Samir Amghar, a sociologist at the Free University of Brussels, Salafism specialist and orthodoxy in Islam.
Double the number of mosques in two years, what do you say?
– The declaration of Boubakeur is primarily political. Or populist. Post-attacks from January context is very particular. The Muslim authorities, whatever their trends, trying to transcend their differences to try to front.
Especially since the government and part of Muslim opinion accused the religious leaders, including those from the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) to be an empty shell that could never boast of a positive balance. The Great Mosque of Paris is a structure that has certainly institutional recognition to the authorities, but has not the popular legitimacy.
The lack of CFCM’s balance sheet is also partly due to tensions between the Great Mosque of Paris and the UOIF [Union of Islamic Organizations of France, the French branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, Ed] . The declaration of Boubakeur must also be understood in the light of these tensions. The goal is twofold: to reconnect with the UOIF and Muslim base.
According to figures from Boubaker, France has 2,200 mosques. This amounts, calculated “The World”, a place to 1,200 faithful (based on 3 million practitioners in France). At this rate, it is not absurd to ask more mosques …
– Although I do not know on what figures is based Dalil Boubaker, I do not deny that there to be significant needs. From a symbolic point of view first, and fundamental: an Islam in French will only develop if it is rooted in the buildings are places of worship and mosques. Islam in France is simply inseparable from the construction of “cathedral mosque” signs he has every place in the French religious architectural landscape.
Then you have to identify needs. It should already that the faithful can pray in decent places, while many go into pavilions, not necessarily the standards. Then you have to promote proximity so that Muslims can go to the mosque near their home. It lacks in Paris for example. Now more and more places of worship are built but given the international and national context, governments and municipalities express a certain tension. They are afraid to open the door to fundamentalism.
Even as many public reports insist that radicalization of the movement deserted mosques …
– Yes, but part of the political class has a negative perception of religious practice. Build a mosque, let the faithful go there, would leave, ultimately, to develop the elements, if not violent radicalization, the less religious, with more and more women are veiled, for example.
Some areas do they need more mosques than elsewhere?
– I have not worked on it. What I can say though, is that all the mosques that paradoxically they are underutilized week for the faithful do not attend, and over-used on Friday and the days of Muslim holidays, forcing some praying outdoors. Arbitration is sometimes not easy to do. However, in the long term, we know that Muslims will become more demographically. The construction of mosques can satisfy the younger generation.
The issue of building mosques inevitably raises the question of funding. Many mosques sites have not been completed in France. How to explain it and how to fix it
– The Muslim community is relatively well integrated, but after the popular classes. It does not have the purchasing power to help build mosques. The yards are launched but sometimes suspended for lack of funding. Hence the tendency to seek external funding abroad, patrons from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. But here too, you have the contacts and networks to raise funds. The Muslim Brotherhood has expertise in the field, not first-time migrants.
Finally, even if the government considers that the state can not fund places of worship, there are exceptions to rule. For example, a number of local authorities to make available land in the form of long lease of 99 years in exchange for a symbolic one euro, which saves the purchase of land. We can also fund within places of worship, only the parts related to culture. The Creteil mosque was funded 40% by the city by funding cultural parties. It’s fair game. Governments, when they pragmatism, are able to finance cults bypassing the law.
Should we then overhaul the 1905 law?
– The question is to define what is meant by secularism. We are in an ideological secularism. The Republic is one and indivisible but secularism is a variable geometry. How do you enforce secularism in France when it is applied Integralist way in some towns in France, Paca or Rhône-Alpes and not at all applied in the concordat regions. How to design secularism while in the overseas territories, in regions such as Mayotte, Reunion and Wallis and Futana, calls to prayer are allowed?
Interview by Sarah Diffalah
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