The Rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, Dalil Boubakeur, warned against the persistence of some Moroccan Islamic Associations in France who are “stoking” a simmering conflict within the French Council for Islam, as he put it.

• He said he had withdrawn his membership because he was stopped from expanding the number of seats according to the size of the community that is no longer representative in this council.
• In an interview with “Echorouk”, Dalil  Boubakeur said the Pope Jean Paul II, who visited Jordan and Israel last week, was not  clever enough because it was better if he apologized to Muslims before visiting Israel.
• Echorouk: What are your impressions about the Pope’s visit to the Middle East and his previous anti-Islam statements?
• Mr Dalil Boubakeur: The Italian, French and the Vatican Radio spoke about his visit which proved that we are still asking respect for Muslim community in the world. Indeed, he has extended backing for the promotion of the dialogue between Muslims and Christians, but his last step tends to forget about his first statements which distorted Islam.
• Echorouk: Do you think the duty to apologize to Muslims still exists?
• D.B: We don’t know if the Pope will apologize or not and may be he is more structured and able to keep dialogue. We are still waiting for serious attempts and the church must be conscious about the importance of dialogue with Muslims across all the Muslim countries.
• Echorouk: Don’t you think that the Israelis exploited your statements before the Pope’s visit in order to show that they are regarded as perfect people by both Christians and Muslims neglecting the Palestinians sufferings?
• D.B: Yes, it is the truth. We think there are attempts to exploit religion in politics. We are always supporting the Palestinians together with the Algerian government.
• Echorouk: Do you think all the events came  haphazardly?
• D.B: My statements were exploited for political aims and we don’t know if things were planned beforehand.
• Echorouk: Sorry… you said the Jews are  better?
• D.B: No, I didn’t say such things, I just said we must respect each other and victims must be protected. There are many Palestinian victims who need our support. I’m not responsible for the Israeli magazine’s statements which published wrong things.
• Echorouk: Will you run a judicial follow-up against this magazine?
• D.B: We ask our lawyer to verify the passages which were misrepresented by the magazine and prepare a legal claim.
• Echorouk: The Muslim community in France demonstrated to denounce your statements and said you helped the Jews in Paris to attack the Muslims in Europe?
• D.B: We didn’t receive formal documents about this matter. The statements were denied and there is no need to say that the other religions are attacking Islam in France on the basis of our relations with non-Muslims.
• Echorouk: The Algerian community is disappointed because of the weak representation in the French council of Islam religion?
• D.B: Yes, because of the standards adopted in the council. Unfortunately, we have a weak representation estimated to 20% compared to 60% for Moroccans, this imbalance is due to the new standards, while the majority of the mosques are represented and conducted by Algerians, that’s why we asked for rectifying the situation.
• Echorouk: May be the French authorities wish to choose the Moroccans as representative of Islam in France?
• D.B: Laughing… I don’t know, the most important is that these standards do not serve us as the largest community.
• Echorouk: What are those standards?
• D.B: The greater the area of mosques the larger the number of representatives in the council, priority is given for those who conduct the mosques and not those who visit them, and because many of the mosques’ heads are Moroccans who created other problems and the authorities exploited these negative things within the council.