FEDERATION NATIONALE DES MUSULMANS DE FRANCE

FEDERATION NATIONALE DES MUSULMANS DE FRANCE. Founded on 3o November 1985 “to act officially for the Muslims in France and to protect them,” the Federation Nationale des Musulmans de France (FNMF) is governed by the Law on Associations of 1901. It shares its registered office in Paris with the French branch of the Muslim World League (Rabitat al-`Alam al-Islami).
The federation was started by a French convert to Islam, Daniel Youssof Leclerc, who is president of Taybat (Ar., tayyibat; “excellent things”), a group committed to a more rigorous standard for the production and sale of haldl meat than that practiced by the Paris mosque. The mosque has traditionally been led by an Algerian imam, who alone has had the authority to control the slaughtering of animals. Taybat has contested this particular authority and, in general, the leadership of Algeria over Muslims in France.
The initial political purpose of the federation was, therefore, to free the Muslim community of the influence of Algeria. But its main object is to coordinate the actions of the approximately one hundred Muslim associations that originally comprised the FNMF, to assure their defense if necessary, and to facilitate the practice of the faith in a non-Muslim country. It seeks a friendly relationship with French society and hopes to instill a better knowledge of Islam. It wishes to implement the Islamic standard of living in every domain of life and the application of the shari `ah (the divine law), although this may run counter to the laicist or secular orientation of French public life (including schools), as instituted in the relevant law of December 1905. Nevertheless, the FNMF does not demand the opening of specifically Muslim schools and universities or the practice of polygamy.
The federation’s council consists of fifteen members and seven deputies (five members are chosen from old French Muslim families). All members are chosen by the associations which comprise the FNMF. Since 1985, there have been fifty ethnically distinct members of various political opinions within the council. The FNMF’s first president was a Frenchman, Jacques Yacoub Roty, whose family had been converted to Islam by Rene Guenon. However, Roty left the federation in 1986 in order to found his own association, Vivre I’Islam en Occident (To Live Islam in the West). Daniel Youssof Leclerc was chosen president in December 1986 and remains a member of the constituent council of the Muslim World League.
It is noteworthy that the rector of the Muslim Institute of the Mosque of Paris since 1985, Shaykh Haddam Tidjani-a member of the High State Committee that has ruled Algeria since January 1992 is a member of FNMF’s administrative council. He is also a member of the Conseil Religieux de I’Islam en France (CORIF), created by the French government in 1990 to serve as the representative of French Muslims to the government and probably to break the monopoly of the Algerian leadership over French Muslims-a target that FNMF has clearly not achieved. Taybat is an active opponent to CORIF, which it considers as “collaborationist.”
The present president of FNMF is a Turk, Mustafa Dogan, who is also a member of CORIF. The deputy president is Mohamed El Naceur Latreche, an Algerian who hails from the Muslim community of Strasbourg.
The federation raises its funds from its member associations, but it does not interfere with their programs or in their management. The assistance of the Muslim World League has been very important to the FNMF since its foundation.
[See also France.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bulletin d’Information. Periodical publication of the Federation. L’Index. Free newspaper, published monthly by Taybat.
Kepel, Gilles. Les banlieues de l’Islam. Paris, 1987. Empirically based study of Muslims in France and their many organizations. Krieger-Krynicki, Annie. Les musulmans en France. Paris, 1985. Study of the social composition of revivalist Islam in France.
ANNIE KRIEGER-KRYNICKI