So this group may indeed be anti-Semitic and linked to Hamas, but Dominique de Villepin doesn’t seem to care. From Reuters, with thanks to Twostellas:
PARIS (Reuters) – France has rejected a U.S.-based Jewish group’s call for legal action against one of the country’s largest Muslim organisations that it says is anti-Semitic and is linked to the militant Islamist group Hamas.
Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin said Paris had proved it was tough on Islamic radicals by questioning about 100 so far this year and expelling 17 of them.
But he declined to follow up a call by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre to probe links between the Union of French Islamic Organisations (UOIF) and pro-Palestinian groups it says collect money for Hamas and to replace the UOIF leadership.
“We must avoid stigmatising anyone or jumping to conclusions,” he told Europe 1 radio on Sunday. “It’s clear the state is being tough, but it’s not its role to jump to conclusions.”
The UOIF denied it was anti-Jewish.
The Wiesenthal Centre’s Paris office urged the government two weeks ago to launch a probe “leading to the dismantling and possible condemnation of this organisation’s current leadership and its replacement by more moderate voices of French Islam”.
Its director Shimon Samuels said the UOIF was “a radical political organisation” linked to the Muslim Brotherhood spiritual guide Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, who has issued fatwas (religious decrees) supporting suicide bombers.
The Centre also linked the UOIF to a pro-Hamas group banned in the United States.
Samuels also provided texts from a forum on the UOIF Web site which he said documented anti-Semitic views it condoned.