Paris (AFP)
"We refuse that places of worship are used to disseminate political speeches": in the "charter of principles" presented on Monday at the Elysee, the French Council of Muslim Worship (CFCM) undertakes to fight against political Islam and foreign interference, according to this document obtained by AFP.
The CFCM, made up of nine federations, approved this charter on Sunday evening, which was demanded by the executive, after several weeks of internal crises.
It opens the way to a restructuring of the second religion of France and in particular to the creation of a National Council of Imams (CNI), which will be responsible for "labeling" imams practicing in France.
"No religious conviction can be invoked to escape the obligations of citizens", write the officials of the CFCM in the preamble of this "charter of principles for Islam in France".
"We reaffirm from the outset that neither our religious convictions nor any other reason can supplant the principles which found the law and the Constitution of the Republic", they assure.
The charter contains ten articles.
The sixth, probably the most anticipated, is devoted to "the rejection of all forms of interference and the instrumentalization of Islam for political ends".
"We refuse that places of worship serve to disseminate political speeches or import conflicts that take place in other parts of the world. Our mosques and places of worship are reserved for prayer and the transmission of values", is- he writes in this article.
Places of worship should therefore not be used to broadcast "nationalist speeches defending foreign regimes and supporting foreign policies hostile to France," the document adds.
"We make a commitment to ensure more and more the financing of our places of worship by national financing", it is also said.
"The signatories must clearly reject any interference from abroad in the management of their mosques and the mission of their imams."
On another sensitive point, the signatories of the charter will have to undertake "not to criminalize a renunciation of Islam, nor to qualify it + as apostasy +".
Likewise, CFCM officials are committed to ensuring that gender equality is respected.
Article 8, devoted to "attachment to secularism and public services", recalls "the essential role of the teacher in our society and the importance of the school which must be preserved from the evils which affect society. ", probably in reference to the assassination of Professor Samuel Paty.
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