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• He said he had withdrawn his membership because he was stopped from expanding the number of seats according to the size of the community that is no longer representative in this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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• D.B: My statements were exploited for political aims and we don’t know if things were planned beforehand.
• 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.
• D.B: We ask our lawyer to verify the passages which were misrepresented by the magazine and prepare a legal claim.
• 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.
• 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.
• D.B: Laughing… I don’t know, the most important is that these standards do not serve us as the largest community.
• 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.