STRASBOURG, 20 November 2003 — The French city of Strasbourg has angered local Muslim leaders by insisting they stop preaching in Arabic and help fight juvenile delinquency if they want a subsidy to help build a mosque.
Mayor Fabienne Keller informed Muslim leaders last week that the municipal subsidy also required that they preach a “French Islam”, guarantee women’s rights and inform City Hall about their view on whether Muslim girls should wear head scarves.
The association planning the Grand Mosque of Strasbourg rejected the demand and said it would rather forego the subsidy — amounting to 10 percent of the six million euro ($7.16 million) overall cost — than go along with the city’s demands.
“We’re not asking for charity ...(we could) do without the city’s help,” Abderrahim El Heloui, secretary-general of the mosque association, told the Dernieres Nouvelles d’Alsace daily in the eastern French city yesterday.
On preaching only in French, he said: “That’s a theological issue, politicians have nothing to do with it.” Most of France’s five million Muslims are of Arab North African origin.
El Heloui also bristled at the suggestion that Muslim leaders help fight juvenile delinquency, saying it implied that the mosque was in regular contact with young lawbreakers.
France launched a council of Muslim communities last year to help deal with issues such as construction subsidies, which the state offers to all recognized religions.
Some politicians have said they hoped Muslim leaders would return the favor by exerting their supposed influence to bring more order to the unruly suburban slums where many Muslims live.
El Heloui said the city’s query about head scarves, which Paris is considering officially banning from public schools, was a political question he could not decide. “If there is a ban, we’ll be the first to respect it,” he said.
Strasbourg, home to the European Parliament and Council of Europe, has for years debated the issue of whether it should allow its Muslim community to build a large central mosque.
