By Hadi Yahmid, IOL Correspondent
PARIS, June 25, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, the French Muslims' favorite politician who helped form their umbrella group, is set to embark on a diplomacy mission to rescue the French Council for the Muslim Faith (CFCM).
The charismatic 50-year-old intends to pay later Saturday, June 25, a yet undeclared visit to the headquarters of the Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF) to dissuade the group from walking out of the CFCM, well-informed political sources told IslamOnline.net.
The UOIF has threatened to quit the umbrella group, the official representative body of French Muslims, protesting irregularities in the CFCM's recent elections.
The union won ten seats out of the 45 up for grabs while the National Federation of French Muslims (FNMF), which the media described as “Rabat Friends,” swept the vote with 19 seats.
The UOIF accused other groups, in collaboration with the Interior Ministry, of rigging the elections in favor of the FNMF.
On the vote counting day, the union and the FNMF traded forgery accusations with both sides seeking independents be added to their slates.
UOIF chairman Lhaj Thami Breze maintains that his group has won 15 seats and is, thus, the main winner of the elections.
With 45 members elected in a direct vote, the Interior Ministry appoints 20 others to the 65-member board of the CFCM.
Sarkozy was one of the staunch supporters for establishing the CFCM and supervised its first election in April 2003.
Rescue Mission
Fearing its possible breakup, Sarkozy will try to convince the UOIF to remain in the umbrella group, French political sources told IOL.
He will also seek their support for the reelection of Paris Mosque Rector and outgoing CFCM president Dalil Boubakeur, they added.
The Grand Mosque of Paris slate secured 10 seats in the vote.
During the election campaign, Boubakeur was indirectly backed by the media, which described him as the representative of the liberal Muslim voice in France.
Sarkozy and his ministry fear the UOIF could field a rival contender to challenge Boubakeur, a favorite of the French government.
IOL has learnt that in the case of pushing for a new CFCM chief, the UOIF would nominate Ammar Al-Asfar, a Lille mosque imam and one of the leading French Muslim figures.
The French government sponsored the launch of the CFCM in 2003 to create national and regional leaderships able to deal with state officials about problems Islam faces in the western European country.
According to its statute, the CFCM deals with the religious aspects of Muslim life in France, such as the construction of mosques, training of imams and nomination of chaplains for hospitals, prisons and the military.
France is home to some six to seven million Muslims, the largest Muslim minority in Europe.