"Fears over mosque funding revive French church-state debate"

"Fears over mosque funding revive French church-state debate"

(AFP, October 31, 2005)

Paris, France - A call for a change to a century-old French law to allow
the state to fund new mosques has sent sparks flying in a society deeply
attached to the separation of religion and state.

Concerned that a shortage of mosques is allowing extremists to gain a
foothold among Frances 5.5 million Muslims by funding places of worship,
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy earlier this month named a panel to
look into the prickly question.

Due to report to the government in June next year, the committee is being
asked, among other things, to suggest ways of reviewing the 1905
secularity law that bans the state from funding places of worship.

The initiative placed Sarkozy squarely at odds with both President Jacques
Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who sees the century-old
law as one of the pillars of our republican system and rejects the idea
of updating it.

True, more work is needed to recognise the rightful place of Frances
Muslims, Villepin said, but as members of a strictly secular community.

The two men, rivals both aiming for the presidency in 2007, tried to
smooth over their differences on this and other matters at a joint press
conference this week.

Sarkozy has repeatedly argued that breaking the French taboo to provide
public money for mosques and imams would be the best way of bringing the
Muslim community into the mainstream, out of the garages and basements it
is often forced to use as unofficial prayer rooms.

"To separate French Islam from foreign influences," he said last month,
"let us give it the means to be independent."

Islamic radicals are already thought to control 20 mosques in the country,
according to Frances domestic intelligence service, which also says
militants are increasingly congregating in secret prayer-rooms, out of
sight of the authorities.

A year after a hotly-disputed ban on Muslim headscarves and other
religious signs came into force in French schools, the debate on funding
is the latest in a string of delicate negotiations between Frances
government and its large Muslim minority.

Despite Frances reluctance to be seen as supporting any religious group,
concerns over the rise of Islamic extremism have led it to take a more
and more active role in the affairs of the Muslim community in recent
years.

Two important steps have already been taken to bring greater transparency
to the way the religion is funded.

In 2003, French Islam obtained its first ever officially-recognised
representative body, the French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM),
which has responsibility for issues ranging from the funding of mosques
to the ritual slaughter of animals.

Now a recognised public institution, it is the governments main point of
contact with the Muslim community.

And in June this year a government-backed "Foundation for Islam" was also
set up to oversee the financing of the religion in France, grouping
private donations from France and abroad, held in a state-owned bank to
ensure maximum transparency, to pay for building and renovating mosques
as well as training imams.

Many in the political establishment are against taking the states role any
further, including the CFCMs president Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the
Paris mosque, who immediately backed Villepin in opposing any change to
the secularity law.

But other voices within the CFCM took a less hostile view and the
influential rector of the Lyon mosque, Kamel Kabtane, supports a review
of the 1905 law.

Among the majority Roman Catholic Church, the conference of bishops said
it believed the current church-state balance should be upheld, but did
recognise that certain "practical problems" needed tackling.

The response from other religious groups has been mixed: Protestant
leaders said they would welcome a rethink of the law, but Jewish
community leaders have come out against any change.

A collective groan rose from the press following Sarkozys announcement
with the conservative Le Figaro warning it would fuel the tug-of-war
between his camp and followers of Chirac and Villepin, already at odds
over economic policy and such issues as Turkeys bid to join the

European Union.

The left-leaning Liberation said the debate could easily turn into a
slinging match, in a country still bruised by a fiery, painful debate
over the Islamic headscarf in schools.

Meanwhile, the opposition Socialists scolded the government for sending
out mixed messages on such a sensitive issue, and urged the president and
prime minister to keep their ministers in check.

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