France has been trying to construct a "French Islam" shorn of the elements of Islam that threaten the nature of French society as a whole. This is extremely unlikely to work, of course, because (as I point out in Islam Unveiled) Islamic reformers are always vulnerable to challenge from those who are less reform-minded on the basis of a plain reading of the Qur'an and Sunnah: the jihadists have the texts on their side.
A hint of this comes from this BBC article (with thanks to all who sent this in): "Woman quits French Muslim council." She says it is dominated by Muslims from other countries: i.e., not by Westernized French Muslims, but by Muslims from Islamic countries who are coming to France expecting to Islamize it, not to see France Frenchify Islam.
Dounia Bouzar said she was stepping down from the French Council of the Muslim Faith because it had become dominated by men born outside France.She said they were too influenced by their countries of origin and failed to address young French Muslims' concerns.
The council was set up in 2002 as an official point of contact with Muslims....
She said the fact that mainly immigrants ran the council (CFCM) meant young Muslims felt unrepresented and received little advice on how to live as Muslims in a secular western state.
"As long as there is not a majority of French-born Muslims on the board, the CFCM will suffer from rivalries that divide its members according to their countries of origin," she said.
The International Herald Tribune of January 6th takes a different tack on this story:
Woman on Muslim board quits
French council failing its youth, she asserts
PARIS (Reuters, Agence France-Presse): Dounia Bouzar, one of two female members of France's official Muslim council, has resigned, saying the board, which was meant to represent the country's second religion, wastes its time with power struggles and procedural questions.
Dounia Bouzar, an anthropologist and an expert on French-born Muslims, said in an interview published on Wednesday that the French Council of the Muslim Faith had done nothing to tackle the discrimination that young Muslims here face.
The president of the council, Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, said he regretted Bouzar's decision to resign, and he defended his focus of the past two years on keeping the fragile new council from collapse.
"There was never any discussion of the problems faced by French of immigrant origin," said Bouzar, who was born in France to a French-North African family. France has five million Muslims, about half of whom were born here.
At the council, "they only talk about procedures, about posts for this person or that person and about the modalities of the elections in June," she said in the French newspaper Le Parisien.
France launched the council two years ago amid concern over a growing Islamist influence here.
It was conceived as the official body to represent Islam and mediate issues causing friction between Islamists and the strictly secular state.
But it has long teetered on the brink of collapse. It overcame internal tensions last September to lobby for the release of two kidnapped French journalists in Iraq, only to resume squabbling over preparations for its next election.
Bouzar was one of several independent experts on the council's 17-member board, which is dominated by rival associations backed by Algeria, Morocco or groups close to the Muslim Brotherhood. They were supposed to represent civil society but have had little impact.
She said the fact that immigrants ran the council meant that young Muslims felt unrepresented there and received no guidance on how to live as Muslims in a secular Western state.
"As long as there is not a majority of French-born Muslims on the board," Bouzar said, the council "will suffer from rivalries that divide its members according to their countries of origin."
She accused the Interior Ministry of playing on these rivalries according to its own political priorities.
The ministry recently proposed measures to control contributions from Muslim countries - a key source of funding for fundamentalist groups - and include non-religious Muslims in dealings with the state as a counterweight to the council.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/01/05/news/france.html
Just in case you missed my post yesterday, here it is again:
I’ve read the posts asking for Jihadwatch readers to provide ideas for what we might do to help spread the word. From what I’ve seen so far, there are some great ideas and you have my complete support. I would suggest though that we’d be remiss in our efforts if first we didn’t recognize and show our tangible support and appreciation to Robert and Hugh for running the Jihadwatch site. They’re providing a great service and doing outstanding work--I think we should do what we can to help them continue that work.
With that said, I’m challenging all Jihadwatch readers to donate $100.00 (or whatever you can) to jihadwatch.org AND to send at least one of Robert’s books to someone (friend, foe, family, politician, etc.).
There’s a donation link in the left column on the home page and a link at the top of the page for purchasing books.
Please do what you can.
As the Saudis are sending in numerous clerics, funding Saudi schools and university chairs and so on, we must be aware that the same process is going on in the United States: they are expecting to Islamize the United States and not allow an Americanized version of Islam to arise or one that is dominated by or influenced by Americans or American culture. As we have been focusing on the "War on Terror," the "War in Iraq," and now Tsunami aid, we have not been seeing the low-level infiltration activities that will grab us by the throat sooner rather than later as we find ourselves in the same situation as Europeans with a Muslim population that has insinuated itself into positions of influence.
we have not been seeing the low-level infiltration activities that will grab us by the throat sooner rather than later as we find ourselves in the same situation as Europeans with a Muslim population that has insinuated itself into positions of influence.
Posted by: epg at January 6, 2005 10:13 AM
Many will be assinated.
Too bad so many must soon die as a direct result of the islamic call for a world-wide caliphate.
Within the next 6 years MUCH horror and suffering will be seen across this planet.
we have not been seeing the low-level infiltration activities that will grab us by the throat sooner rather than later as we find ourselves in the same situation as Europeans with a Muslim population that has insinuated itself into positions of influence
This activity has been monitored and reported on for many years by people like Steve Emerson and Daniel Pipes but the Justice Department and FBI are walking on eggshells to avoid even the appearance of violating the civil rights of these Saudi-funded groups. Either the ACLU and CAIR have been immensely successful in intimidating the authorities or the latter have been given explicit "hands-off" instructions from the Bush Administration. In either case, the result is a growing and propagating Wahhabi virus in cities all over America which, if it reaches critical mass, will be impossible to debug.
"She said they were too influenced by their countries of origin and failed to address young French Muslims' concerns."
Let's be honest here - is it that they are too influenced by their countries of origin, or are they too influenced by their IDEOLOGY of origin? What truly is the nature of this culture clash?
If they want to live in any secular nation they will need to assimilate. If they are incapable of that, and if they continue to insist that the long standing rules of government be changed just to accomodate them, then they need to get the hell out of the host country that they are sucking off of. My great grandparents emigrated to the US from Germany. They learned English, they got jobs, they paid taxes, they raised kids, they bought property, etc.
Screw these stinking muslims. Either they get with the program or get the hell outa dodge. Screw em.
I think there might have been a brief window of opportunity for this reform business some time ago. But no longer. Seems to me like Islam is regressing. As if they've decided their flock has strayed in the past century and need to be yanked back. Digging in their heels and resisting change, even though many who have lived in the West for two, three generations might have been amenable to it. I'm not sure whether it's numbers, or the insidious Saudi funding, or both. This Frenchify Islam committee must worry the Saudis and I'm sure they've moved heaven and hell to make sure there are hardliners (men from overseas) on the committee to sabotage any reform or moderation movement.
People like Dounia should be given the opportunity, the space, to make changes. But it seems that she and others like her are fighting a losing battle. If 2nd and 3rd generation Muslim youth are more fundamental and "radical" than their parents, that's a bad sign. Then we have the loony left who think suggesting Muslims have a problem with their belief system and need to change is racist and bigoted. So they don't help either. They assist the more radical, true form of Islam in quashing any moderation and change, and growing like cancer amongst us.