French Provocations Targeting Muslims’ Worship

After a “point of order” by the rector of the Paris Mosque, Chems Eddine Hafiz, warning the French that Algerians and other Muslim communities are not second-class citizens in France, it was the turn of the imam of the Grand Mosque of Lyon and president of the Council of Mosques of the Rhone, Kamel Kabtane, to warn of the poor treatment of French Muslims by some politicians in France.

“Muslims are now seen as terrorists, Salafists, Islamists,” said the Dean of the Lyon Mosque, Kamel Kabtane, who sounded the alarm, saying that “the daily life of members of the Muslim community in France has become increasingly isolated and stigmatized by the political sphere,” about their complicated life in the French society in light of the systematic discrimination to which they are constantly subjected.

Since the outbreak of the crisis between Algeria and Paris about six months ago, the French media, especially the platforms known for their right-wing and far-right orientations, have played an ugly role in inciting French public opinion against Muslim communities, through misleading campaigns and lobbying without the slightest intervention from the relevant authorities, especially the Audiovisual Regulatory Authority, where the hornets’ nest is becoming more and more dangerous.

For the rector of the Lyon mosque, the restrictions imposed on people of the Muslim faith have increased significantly in recent years, and “Islamophobic violence has become commonplace. Restrictions even apply to Muslim schools, the latest case being the government’s withdrawal of the contract with the State from the private school group Al-Kindi”, and thus its unjustified deprivation of the French state’s support.

French highest authorities led this systematic campaign such as Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who recently stated that “the headscarf is the standard of Islamism” without being contradicted, he used a term that sparked a debate devoid of any legal value, revolving around the identity of those who accompany pupils to school, in a hint at the mothers or grandmothers who accompany them to school, in a blatant violation of the rights of minorities and personal freedoms, and perhaps this is what made the imam express his condemnation: “They are excluding us from society, making us pariahs,” he confirmed in an interview with the investigative newspaper “Mediapart”.

What is interesting is that many French people, especially the left, reject these practices and strongly defend Muslim communities, considering their children as French like others. However, the right and the far right impose their political logic, supported by a media arsenal that has lost all its moral values.

Last week, Chams Eddine Hafiz, the dean of the Grand Mosque of Paris, appeared in a recorded video, broadcast on the mosque’s website, in which he denounced the racist media campaign targeting him personally because of the position he holds, where he explained that the Paris Mosque’s way of funding, and its positions on what is happening on the French scene.

The dean of the Grand Mosque of Paris stressed that he is French of Algerian origin and is proud of and adheres to his Algerian heritage. He did not deny his belonging to the French state and its values, for which thousands of Algerian soldiers died in the First and Second World Wars. He said, “I affirm my deep and unlimited attachment to my homeland. Algeria is the cradle of my origins, and France is the land of my commitment.”

Chams Eddine Hafiz insisted on defending “the wisdom of Emir Abdelkader, a prominent figure in Islam, and the founder of the principles of dialogue and defence of Christians in the East, without neglecting his other affiliation with the spirit of French enlightenment, sometimes embodied by Voltaire and Rousseau…”, and considered this “a strengthening of the bridges of communication and mutual respect between the two countries”.

In what appeared to be a response to some parties in France attacking the mosque because of its Algerian affiliation, Chems Eddine Hafiz said that Algeria began financing the Grand Mosque of Paris in 1982 within a legal and transparent framework following the 1905 law. He stressed that this issue was “misunderstood”, and the Paris Mosque embodies Paris’ recognition of the sacrifices of soldiers who came from North Africa and the Sahel region to defend France.

Despite this campaign, Chems Eddine Hafiz affirmed: “I will continue my commitment without effort for peace, justice and dialogue, and I will work for harmony between my two countries, Algeria and France,” because the mosque’s goal is “to serve the Muslim community. It fights fanaticism and obscurantism and defends harmony and brotherhood between the different religions in France, and it is a living memory in the French society.”