Controversial Muslim Rights Group Dissolves Amid Government Pressure

As of October 29, the CCIF Board of Directors "has pronounced the voluntary dissolution" of the collective and redeployed "a large part of its activities abroad," the collective said in a statement, adding that the association’s assets have been transferred to partner associations that will take over the fight against Islamophobia at the European level.

The Minister of the Interior had accused the CCIF of being "an Islamist office working against the Republic" in the aftermath of the assassination of Samuel Paty, a history-geography teacher beheaded for having shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to his students. Last week, the association had received notification of its dissolution and had "eight days to assert" its observations.

The CCIF rejects the accusations against it. On Twitter, the association published a series of messages this week, believing it had "responded to the various grievances that are being blamed on it in the dissolution notification," and "demonstrated that it was based on unfounded, biased or false elements." "Worse: we are generally blamed for doing our legal work, for applying the law and for demanding its application when it is called into question," it denounces.