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France’s Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve (C) meets with Vice President of the French Muslim council CFCM Abdallah Zekri (L) and CFCM Head Anouar Kbibech (R) at the Ministry of the Interior on August 1, 2016 in Paris. Muslims across France were invited to participate in Catholic ceremonies on July 31 to mourn a priest whose murder by jihadist teenagers sparked fears of religious tension. Masses will be celebrated across the country in honour of octogenarian Father Jacques Hamel, whose throat was cut in his church on August 2 in the latest jihadist attack on France. “We are all Catholics of France,” said Anouar Kbibech, the head of the French Muslim council CFCM, in an expression of togetherness in the wake of the attack. / AFP PHOTO / JACQUES DEMARTHON /


French Muslims to Launch Foundation to Finance Mosques

by | Aug 1, 2016 | World |

French Muslims to Launch Foundation to Finance Mosques

In the wake of recent statements made by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on inhibiting foreign funding of mosque construction in France, a new foundation will be created to help finance the mosques and keep out radical benefactors, the head of the French Muslim Council said Monday.

Anouar Kbibech proposed the foundation would be used to fund the construction and running of mosques and would be financed by fees paid by actors in the halal food sector.

France, home to Europe’s largest Muslim community, is a secular state that prohibits the use of state money for places of worship.

Valls said on Sunday that he wants to put an end to the financing from abroad for the construction of mosques.

“Almost all Muslims of France are attached to a serene, open, tolerant Islam and they are fully respecting the values and laws of the Republic,” Kbibech said on LCI television.

After meeting Kbebich, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said he wants the foundation to be launched in October.

The debate about the financing of mosques in France was revived by last week’s slaying of an elderly priest in a Normandy church by two Islamic extremists.

Some observers have suggested foreign influence over certain mosques and prayer rooms in France could encourage the radicalization of attendants.

Cazeneuve said 20 Muslim places of worship have been shut down in recent months due to radical views being exposed there.