France: Muslim boycott

The Paris Grand Mosque (GMP) has planned to boycott elections to France's Muslim Council on Saturday, throwing into doubt the future of the body launched in 2003 to represent the diverse groups among France's five million Muslims.

The mufti of the mosque, Dalil Boubakeur, who has headed the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) since 2003, has said the poll would be unfair since delegates allowed to vote would be chosen according to the prayer space in their mosques. Boubakeur, who is the most prominent Muslim in France, a friend of former President Jacques Chirac and a leader of the country's more affluent and secular-leaning Muslim citizens of Algerian origin, is being challenged for influence by the Moroccan-backed Rally of French Muslims (RFM), and the Union of Islamic Organisations of France (UOIF), which has long been dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood. 

While CFCM has no special legal standing, it is the de facto representative of the country's second-largest faith before the national government. President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was then Minister of the Interior, supported the creation of CFCM. Yet the council has long faced tensions between Algerian- and Moroccan-backed factions. Before polls in 2003 and 2005, he installed Boubakeur as head of the CFCM regardless of poll results, probably to ward off any drift toward radicalism within Europe's largest Muslim minority.

It may be different this time round. The RMF looks set to win the vote thanks to its far larger network among Moroccan immigrants. The UOIF was set to make gains this time last year, when the French government, pressed by the GMP and other Muslim groups, decided to cancel the elections. Since then, the UOIF has gained further traction.