The appointment of French politician Jean-Pierre Chevènement to head the newly formed Foundation for Islam in France, which aims to improve relations between the state and the Muslim community, has sparked controversy in many French circles, reports FRANCE 24.
Chevènement, a former French interior minister, was chosen to head the Foundation for Islam in France Monday following a meeting between current interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve and Muslim community leaders in Paris.
Announcing the decision Monday, Cazeneuve said the aim of the discussions was to forge “an Islam anchored in the values of the French Republic”.
But the choice of Chevènement, a 77-year-old career politician whose past posts include defence as well as interior minister, was greeted with skepticism by many activists and community leaders.
“It’s a joke,” civil rights activist Yasser Louati, whose work focuses on issues of Islamophobia and national security, told FRANCE 24. “We keep treating Muslims as if they are foreign people who need to be disciplined.”
The problem with this foundation and similar ones that came before it, Louati argued, is that it was established by the government. For such an organisation to succeed, it needs a bottom-up, and not a top-down approach, he said. The community should have been asked about how they wanted the initiative to be structured and who they wanted to head it. As it stands, “it is bound to fail,” he said.
Louati was also critical about Chevènement’s appointment. “It is like me appointing Ronald Reagan to head up African-American affairs,” he said.
Ghaleb Bencheikh, an author and expert on Islam, who will sit on the organisation’s board, told FRANCE 24 that while a Muslim president for the foundation would have been “ideal”, Chevènement is an acceptable choice in the short-term, when the main aim is to get the project up and running.
Bencheikh said there is no obvious consensus option from within the community at the time being, and that Chevènement will serve a transitional role.
Chevènenement is not without credibility within the community, Bencheikh added. He was a disciple of noted French Arabist Jacques Berque, he has travelled extensively in the Arab world, he was president of the France-Algeria Association and he resigned from his position as minister of defence in protest at his nation’s involvement in the first Gulf War.