How did Maghreb disputes help Macron attack Islamic organizations in France?

Twenty years after its founding, the "French Council of the Muslim Faith" announced its dissolution, to be replaced by Macron's government with the "Islam Forum in France" that will be held every year. While this situation is due to many reasons, including the dispute between Morocco and Algeria.

In 2013, a dispute arose between representatives of the Algerian and Moroccan communities over the appointment of the head of the “Council of the 

The French government revealed its plan to establish the "Islam Forum in France", to be dissolved as a federal framework that takes care of the religious affairs of the country's Muslims, after announcing the dissolution of the "Council of the Islamic Religion in France", which was headed by Moroccan Mohamed Moussaoui.

This measure came after the council’s role had declined, the work that had been disrupted for more than a year, and the state of division among the representatives of France’s Muslims due to Macron’s laws to restrict them, and as a result of the differences that dominated the Maghreb arena to which these representations originally belonged.

Dissolution of the Council and the formation of the Forum

In his recent media appearance, the head of the "Council of the Muslim Faith in France" declared that the organization "is no longer viable", and therefore should dissolve itself after 20 years of caring for the religious affairs of the Muslim community in the country.

On the other hand, Moussaoui expressed his support for the forum that the French government intends to launch as an alternative to the council, according to which it will be held once a year, in the presence of representatives of the Muslims of each French province.

President Macron made it clear during his meeting with Islamic religious representations on Wednesday that he seeks through this forum to represent Islam with local parties to complement meetings held at the provincial level in recent years. Four working groups have now started meeting from a distance, the French Interior Ministry confirmed to the French news agency.

Crises with Maghreb roots

The council has been experiencing a major crisis for at least a year that has disrupted all its activities, due to the dispute between the Islamic representations affiliated with it over the drafting of a "republican charter" for imams, which was imposed by Macron's law to combat "Islamic isolationism." In addition to the state of division with the withdrawal of a number of these representations from the council, led by the Grand Mosque of Paris, and the establishment of an independent "national council of imams".

However, this division has other causes, whose roots extend to the other side of the Mediterranean, where the dispute between Morocco and Algeria casts its shadows on these representations, prompting the collision of Moroccan representations and their Algerian counterparts, led by the "Council of the Islamic Religion in France" led by Moroccan Mohamed Moussaoui. And the Paris Mosque, on which the Algerian Shams El-Din Hafeez is based.

This is not the first time that this clash has occurred among one community, but before that, in 2013, there was a dispute between the representatives of the Algerian and Moroccan communities over the appointment of the head of the “Council of the Islamic Religion in France,” which hampered the elections to renew its structures. In 2018, a dispute erupted between the two communities over the presidency of the Grand Mosque of Paris, as Moroccans protested the selection of Dalil Boubacar, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, as a leader.