PARIS, 22 March 2005 — France’s main Muslim groups laid groundwork for the secure financing of their faith yesterday with a foundation to handle funds from donors now holding back because of post-9/11 uncertainty and corruption.
Watched over by Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin, four leading Islamic organizations pledged to jointly manage donations from France and abroad to build or repair mosques, train imams and operate their Muslim Council.
Villepin, who proposed the private body to help finance French Islam without state aid, said their agreement would shed light on murky financial flows and ensure proper mosques and trained prayer leaders for members of France’s second religion.
“We don’t want an Islam of basements and garages in our country anymore,” Villepin said, referring to the makeshift prayer rooms many poor congregations among France’s 5 million Muslims use for lack of funds to build a proper mosque.
Muslim leaders agreed with Villepin that the foundation, which will be funded by voluntary contributions, should attract funds because donors will see how the money is spent.
“Since Sept. 11, many donors and countries have been holding back,” said Mohamed Bechari, head of the National Federation of French Muslims (FNMF), referring to the 2001 attacks on the United States that aroused suspicion about Muslim groups’ funds possibly bankrolling militant activity.
“We needed a foundation approved by the state to encourage donors to help us,” he said.
Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Paris Grand Mosque and head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), said donors also hesitated because some funds had ended up in corrupt hands.
“Some (Muslim) countries have asked France to control this and redistribute their donations, but it cannot do this because of the legal separation of church and state,” he said.
The Foundation for Islamic Works, scheduled to open in June, is the biggest step forward in institutionalizing Islam in traditionally Catholic France since the CFCM was born in 2003.
The CFCM has been slowed by internal rivalries and a budget too small to let it rent an office, even though money from Muslims abroad has clearly flowed into France in past years.
Haydar Demiryurek, head of the Coordinating Committee of French Turkish Muslims, said the CFCM’s annual budget was only about $79,000. Tax breaks on donations would encourage French individuals and firms to contribute, he said.
The CFCM has also not been able to help finance mosques, so congregations have had to raise money by themselves or turn to rich foreign Muslims, often in the Gulf States, for charity.
It also needs money to help train imams. The Sorbonne and another Paris university faculty will start training student imams in French history, culture and law later this year in another step to create a moderate “French Islam.”
The government has also started language courses for the 30 percent of the 1,200 imams here who speak no French.
The foundation will not have a monopoly on funds coming from abroad, since European and French laws forbid the state to bar private donations, but it should spread money around more evenly and reduce concern about suspicious foreign funding.
“This is the best way to shed light on the flow of funds that are not well known and fuel speculation,” Villepin said.
The $606,000 starting capital for the foundation “has already been largely passed,” he said, without naming donors.
Lhaj Thami Breze said his powerful Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF) had opposed earlier plans for a broader body including lay Muslim groups and more official oversight.
“This will be run by religious groups for religious groups, not by external forces,” he said. “We are satisfied.”
Media reports have said Qatar was ready to contribute about $1,136,000.
France has 1,685 prayer halls and mosques for 5 million Muslims, which is behind Germany’s total of 2,500 place of worship for 3 million Muslims, Interior Ministry figures show.
