Return of the Debate on the Representation of the Muslim Community in France

Circles of the Islamic community in France were represented in the Council of the Islamic Religion, replaced by a decision of the French president Emmanuel Macron, in 2022 to present their project as a competitor or alternative to the Forum for Islam in France (FORIF), which is led by Sadiq Bouloussif of Algerian origin.
The Forum for Islam in France (FORIF), as an organized body for dialogue between the Muslim community and the French authorities, was born on the ruins of the Islamic Religious Council, created in 2003 by former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, which no longer fit the new French authorities’ policy of organizing the Muslim community in this country.
Among the figures pushing for an alternative to the “Forum of Islam in France” are those who lost their positions after the dissolution of the Council of the Islamic Religion, led by the Frenchman of Moroccan origin, Muhammad Al-Moussawi, who headed the replaced council and is currently at the head of the Union of French Mosques (UMF). (UMF), and Ibrahim Alci, chairman of the Coordination Committee of Turkish Muslims in France, according to what was reported by the newspaper Le Monde, in its issue published yesterday, Wednesday.
According to the same source, these two figures are exploiting the public space through platforms and press releases published at an unprecedented pace, taking advantage of the brutal Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip and trying to express the point of view of French Muslims regarding a conflict that affects them in several ways.
Speaking of Mohammed al-Moussawi, the paper notes that he “clearly presented himself as the leader of the Islamic Religious Council,” which has not had a legal presence in France for almost two years. The organization has also recently changed its statements and activities to highlight Mohammed al-Moussawi in order to be more representative of actors in the field.
Before the dissolution of the French Council for the Islamic Religion, its president, of Moroccan origin, Mohammed al-Moussawi, was a prominent and influential figure among members of the Muslim communities in France by virtue of the position he held. However, with the dissolution of this council, his presence on the Islamic religious scene in France became very secondary. While the notable presence went to the Algerian origin, Sadiq Belloussif, and behind him was the Grand Mosque of Paris, which became more influential than before.
What has increased the influence of the Grand Mosque of Paris is the new role it will soon assume in the training of local imams (in France) who will replace those whom the French authorities have stopped accepting from Algeria, the Kingdom of Morocco and Turkey, by decision of the Minister of the Interior, Gerald Moussa Darmanin, as of this year.
The defenders of the “Forum of Islam in France” raise the factor of legal representation of the Muslim community in order to increase its role and presence in the French scene, while some of the figures who were responsible in the French Council for the Islamic Religion are trying to push the right to participate in representation, which is a given that lacks a legal formula, because of the decision to dissolve it earlier.