Islamist ‘entryism': French Muslims refuse to be labelled ‘enemies' within

Middle East Eye

a day ago

There was no surprise - only dismay and frustration - among French Muslims following the publication last week of a government report highlighting the alleged influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and political Islamism in France.
Commissioned last year to 'clarify the threat posed by Islamist infiltration to security and national cohesion,' the document aims to raise awareness about so-called Islamist entryism.
This is "considered a separatist mode of action" that "is characterised by involvement in local life to access positions of influence and power that enable the obtaining of amendments to existing laws".
On 21 May, French President Emmanuel Macron convened a Defence Council meeting to discuss the report and asked the government to formulate proposals in light of the "seriousness of the facts".
For many Muslims in France, this was just another worrying step in the stigmatisation of their community.
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"After accusing us of separatism, now we are suspected of plotting to seize power,' Salwa Hamiti, a former sports coach at a community centre near Paris, told Middle East Eye.
'How far will this demonisation go, turning us into enemies to be defeated?'
The 34-year-old Muslim woman became a target the moment she decided to cover her head two years ago.
'My manager didn't appreciate seeing me arrive one morning wearing a turban,' she said.
'He immediately took me aside to ask me to remove it. According to him, not only was I breaking the laicite law, but I risked influencing the young girls I was training, most of whom were of Muslim origin,' said Hamiti, who eventually resigned.
'After accusing us of separatism, now we are suspected of plotting to seize power. How far will this demonisation go?'
- Salwa Hamiti, a former sports coach
In France, "laicite" is a form of secularism defined as the separation between the state and religious institutions, which imposes an obligation of neutrality on the state.
In 2004, the country legislated to prohibit the wearing of religious symbols or clothing in state schools, and earlier this year, the Senate adopted a similar law - that still needs to be discussed by the lower house of parliament - during all sports competitions.
Today, although Hamiti has found a job as a saleswoman in a 'Muslim-friendly' store, the former coach still cannot believe she was accused of proselytising.
"A kippah or a cross are fine, but not the veil, the qamis [tunic] and the beard, that are used today as a pretext for the right and the far right to fuel fear and hatred of French Muslims," ​​she said.
'Fifth column'
The report on the Muslim Brotherhood's influence in France unveiled last week highlights primarily alleged lobbying and networking practices.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau denounced the "threat" posed by the "entryism" of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose goal, according to him, is "to push all of French society into Sharia law."
For lawyer Sefen Guez Guez, this is "utterly false." And by promoting such a discourse, the authorities validate conspiracy theories about Islam, he told MEE.
French president asks for measures to combat Muslim Brotherhood 'entryism' Read More »
"These theories suggest that there are organisations whose goal is to destabilise the nation, while we are all witnessing a rise in Islamophobia in France," he said.
According to the National Directorate of Territorial Intelligence, anti-Muslim acts have increased by 72 percent when compared to the same period last year.
Dramatic as this rise is, representatives of the Muslim community believe these figures do not show the full extent of the problem as victims do not always file complaints.
Guez Guez considers that "the state contributes to amplifying Islamophobia by suggesting that Muslims represent a danger and constitute a kind of fifth column, especially if they organise and succeed".
"Personally, I am convinced that it is the success of the Muslim community in this country that is disturbing," he added.
In recent years, the lawyer has defended several cases involving Muslim organisations targeted by banning procedures - such as the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), dissolved in 2020 - as well as the closure of mosques and private Muslim schools.
All these entities have been accused of colluding with Islamist circles and propagating their ideas.
This is the case of the Averroes Muslim high school, a high-quality establishment located in the northern city of Lille, whose legal team has just obtained, on appeal, the reinstatement of public subsidies after more than a year of legal battles.
'[There is] a clear desire on the part of the state to dismantle any possibility for the Muslim community to build an elite that is professionally successful and at the same time asserts its Islamic identity'
- Sefen Guez Guez, lawyer
In Lyon, in eastern central France, the fate of the Al Kindi high school, also renowned for the excellence of its results, is still in the hands of the courts.
Last January, the local prefecture decided to terminate its contract with the state on the grounds that it "carries out a project contrary to the values ​​of the Republic".
"In court, the director of legal affairs at the interior ministry, who came to defend the case on behalf of the prefecture, said that Al Kindi's real problem was that it was training an elite that would one day be in power,' Guez Guez reported.
The lawyer denounced: 'A clear desire on the part of the state to dismantle any possibility for the Muslim community to build an elite that is professionally successful and at the same time asserts its Islamic identity.'
A year and a half after the promulgation of the so-called 'separatism' law in 2021 - which its detractors say discriminates against Muslims - 3,000 inspections have been carried out in Muslim establishments.
As a result, 187 were closed, including seven mosques and 11 schools.
After Averroes and Al Kindi, Ibn Khaldoun, a school located in Marseille, is now threatened with closure. The right-wing presidents of the region and department have just withdrawn public funding because, according to them, the establishment is part of the "Muslim Brotherhood ecosystem".
"We must expect similar decisions to multiply following the publication of the report," Guez Guez warned.
'A culture of suspicion'
This is also the fear of Christian Di Meglio, president of Sete Olympique, an amateur soccer club near the southern city of Montpellier that was stripped of its license a year ago for emblazoning its players' jerseys with a star and a crescent, two emblematic symbols of Islam.
The club has been accused of 'communautarist' practices and 'separatism'.
'Down with the veil': Muslim athletes outraged by French bill to ban hijab in sports Read More »
"Our logo had never caused any problems since the club's creation in 2016, but with the rise of the far right, we became a target,' he told MEE.
Out of a total of "280 associations affiliated with the movement in a multitude of sectors that affect Muslim life', the government's report on the Muslim Brotherhood mentions 127 sports associations listed in 2020 as "having a relationship with a separatist movement".
"When players pray in the locker room, they are Islamists, but when a footballer makes the sign of the cross upon entering the pitch, it doesn't bother anyone," Di Meglio said, protesting against "the development of a culture of suspicion that exclusively targets Muslims."
The rector of the Grand Mosque of Lyon, Kamel Kabtane, calls it "a presumption of guilt towards Muslims."
"When a Defence Council is convened, it's because the situation is serious, because there is an internal enemy, and they cite it: Islam and Islamism," Kabtane told MEE.
The government report released this month claims that two mosques in Lyon and around 50 associations in the region are Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated.
'Should we consider that 400 people [...] could subvert republican institutions or even Islamise society? It's not credible'
- Franck Fregosi, a researcher at the National Centre for Scientific Research
The rector denies this, and denounces a very anxiety-inducing climate for Muslims in the country, which reminds him of "the way Jews were treated since 1933".
"They are currently scrutinising the ways we dress, behave, and so on,' Kabtane said.
Other Islamic organisations, such as the Grand Mosque of Paris and the French Council of the Muslim Faith, are concerned about the stigmatisation of Muslims in the name of the fight against Islamism.
The Grand Mosque of Paris has denounced in a press release "the construction of a Muslim problem and the insidious development of an increasingly uninhibited discriminatory discourse" whose aim is to 'serve particular political agendas".
Politically-motivated
For Franck Fregosi, a researcher at the National Centre for Scientific Research and a specialist in Islam in France, the report serves in particular the interior minister, "whose presidential ambitions are well known".
The academic, who was interviewed by the report's authors, was surprised to discover conclusions that according to him exaggerate the influence and the threat of the Muslim Brotherhood in France.
"I admit I don't understand the nature of this threat. Should we consider that 400 people, who constitute the centre of the Brotherhood [according to the report], could subvert republican institutions or even Islamise society? It's not credible," he told MEE.
Fregosi points out that Musulmans de France (Muslims of France), a group the report identifies as "the national branch of the Muslim Brotherhood" in the country, is actually losing ground.
'The content of this report serves to scare public opinion and then provide [the government] with the means to act with racist laws against Muslims without the French people being upset'
- Kamel Kabtane, rector of the Grand Mosque of Lyon
Fregosi sees the focus on the Muslim Brotherhood as a pretext to call out Muslim urban visibility, which is intolerable in the eyes of right and far-right supporters.
What's more, the researcher worries that the report will be a pretext to develop new, more restrictive laws against Muslims.
The fear is shared by the rector of the Grand Mosque of Lyon.
"The content of this report serves to scare public opinion and then provide [the government] with the means to act with racist laws against Muslims without the French people being upset," Kabtane said.
Some political leaders are already making proposals.
Gabriel Attal, former prime minister and president of the presidential party, Renaissance, wants to ban the hijab for girls under 15.
Meanwhile, the interior minister wants the issue of the Muslim Brotherhood 'entryism' to be addressed in the same way as terrorism, including by increasing field controls of Muslim businesses, mosques and associations and facilitating administrative obstruction measures.