Mosques In France Have Been Log Jammed For More Than Ten Years

Mr Walid Naghas, vice President of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, has evoked in an interview with “Echorouk” the vexed issue of the untoward restrictions imposed on the Muslim community members in France in terms of dealing with religious and educational institutions and even on some veiled Muslim women bound at home, stressing however that this is happening at a time, he noted, of a recorded decline in “Islamophobia” in France by almost 30 percent.

He stressed that things between the Muslim community members and the French people are now imbued with calm, and have been considered as stable since last September, adding that the general interest of the French public opinion is now rather focusing on the European Union’s outstanding issues in the face of the Russian-American alliance.

Our interlocutor also raised the issue of granting of licenses for the construction of new mosques in France, pointing out that several relevant projects have been at a standstill for more than 10 years and are yet to be completed.

This is due, he stated, to the abrupt suspension of their licenses and to the French authorities’ incomprehensible injunctions ordering a review of the mosque’s architectural design after it has already been approved.

There are in France, according to Mr Naghas, some 2,500 mosques, but the fully-fledged mosques are very few and don’t exceed the number of ten in all, while the rest make up only small prayer halls which don’t live up to the status of a genuine mosque as the Muslims in general know, he stressed.

He added that these mosques are frequently under harassment and intimidation on the part of the French local authorities.