Paris Commissions Its Former Ambassador To Algeria To Draft A Report On Islam In France

In a suspicious move, the French authorities have commissioned the former Parisian ambassador to Algeria, François Gouyette, and the governor (prefect) of the Yvelines department, Pascal Courtad, to prepare a detailed report on “political Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood movement” and their influence on the French interior, in an approach that falls within the framework of the government of French President Emmanuel Macron’s fight against what it calls “Islamic separatism”.
According to a statement issued by the French Interior Ministry, the date for submitting this report to the government should not exceed the middle of next September, and it is primarily aimed at trying to detect “the influence of political Islam in France.” The ministry, headed by Gerald Moussa Darmanin, affirms that “the fight against separatist tendencies (for the Islamic community) requires an understanding of this phenomenon in its entirety and an awareness of the political institution that it represents”.
One of the reasons given by the Ministry of the Interior for undertaking this work is that “Islamic separatism is a theoretical political-religious project characterized by repeated deviations from the principles of the (French) Republic with the aim of building a counter-society”, in a step that would place the Muslim communities at its head, the large Algerian community. within the framework of a programmed attack led by French far-right circles.
The announcement of this controversial decision was preceded by the leaking of figures prepared by specialized French laboratories (reported by Echorouk two days ago) on Muslim communities, which placed the Algerian community at the forefront of Muslim communities residing in France that maintain their religious and social identity compared to others notably Maghreb, Middle Eastern and African communities.
This decision also comes after a series of measures taken by the French authorities targeting Muslim communities alone, and they are many and varied, such as preventing the importation of imams to France, from Algeria, Morocco and Turkey, since the beginning of this year, as well as another instruction issued by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The French Interior Minister, Gerald Moussa Darmanin, told French provincial officials of the need to speed up the process of expulsion of immigrants whom the Interior Ministry considers a threat to public security in France, following the adoption of a new immigration law that has been the subject of strong criticism by the French political class, with the exception of the political currents that followed. With extremist and anti-immigrant ideas, similar to the right and the extreme right, which now has more than one political party, according to Eric Zemmour, the most extreme, formed what he called the “Recovery Party”.
The Algerian imam of the Grand Mosque of Toulouse, Mohamed Tatiat, was deported to Algeria on April 20 last year, leaving his family behind, on charges of anti-Semitism dating back to 2017, and the services of the French Ministry of the Interior did not allow him to enjoy his most basic legal rights by appealing the deportation decision. According to what was confirmed by his defense, the situation of the Tunisian Imam of the Banyuls-Sir-Saz mosque, Mahjoub Mahjoubi, was deported a few weeks earlier without being able to appeal the decision in accordance with what is required.
The fact that François Gouyette, a retired diplomat who served as ambassador in Algeria until last August, has been appointed to carry out this work only adds to the doubts about the motives of the French government. The French authorities seem to be trying to benefit from the experience that this diplomat acquired during his work in Algeria in order to try to understand the growth of the Islamic phenomenon in France, whose development is considered normal and natural for the development of a society saturated with the defense of its identity, like other societies.