French Council of the Muslim Faith

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The French Council of the Muslim Faith (French: Conseil Français du Culte Musulman, usually abbreviated to CFCM), is a non-profit group created on May 28, 2003, consisting of 25 CRCMs (Conseil Regional du Culte Musulman or Regional Councils of the Muslim Faith). The current president of the CFCM is the mufti of the Paris Mosque, Dalil Boubakeur. Others members include the Grand Mufti of Marseille, Soheib Bencheikh.

While CFCM has no special legal standing, it is the de facto representative of the French Muslims before the national government. Nicolas Sarkozy, who was then Minister of the Interior, supported the creation of CFCM. Now the group is apparently dominated by radicals including in particular the UOIF, which is close to the Muslim Brotherhood. It is presumed that Sarkozy desired to have some "official" representative of the Muslim community, in the same manner as there exist "official" representatives of the Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant faiths. Critics allege that, in virtue of laïcité, there was no need to give official representation to a religious group, which lead to communautarisme. They further note that most of the Muslim population of France is not well represented by such religious institutions. Newspapers like Le Canard enchaîné or Charlie Hebdo have stressed that Sarkozy appeared to favour the radical UOIF.

[edit] See also

• Religions in France

[edit] External links

• Entry of the CFCM on the national registry of nonprofit associations maintained by the Journal officiel de la République française

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