French Interior Minister Navigates Divisions in Muslim Community with New Islamic Forum

"[...] A large part of the players do not like each other. This is also the difficulty of the Minister of the Interior, that of working with people who do not want to talk to each other, who sometimes even refuse to be in the same room, and who talk to each other through press releases accusing each other of things that I sometimes do not even understand the beginning or the end of the accusation. It is therefore very difficult to see this lack of unity in the French Muslim world," said Gérald Darmanin in an interview with SaphirNews at the end of the first edition of FORIF.

"I believe there are difficulties in the Jewish, Catholic or Protestant worlds but, when they speak to the public authorities, they are united, agree beforehand, accept compromises among themselves. This is not the case with the (Muslim) representatives I had in front of me so far," added the one who has nurtured reflections on Islam in France and produced an "plea for a French Islam" in 2016. According to him, these representatives all have interesting intellectual and human qualities: "Some are even people with whom I could happily discuss anything else, the Minister of the Interior believes. But together, they fail to forge this unity."

As a result, "this requires additional energy from the State which is not well placed because legitimately, the others say that the State takes care of everything without taking care of everything, but takes care of a lot because the Muslims are not united. It is not so much fundamental issues on which I would have exchanged. It is more the difficulty of having interlocutors," stressed the official, adding that fortunately, the fact that he is "a grandson of a Muslim" at the head of the Ministry of the Interior who is leading the Islam of France project is an asset for him in his communication with his interlocutors.

"It’s an asset because I know that when the question of Muslim plots comes up, I don’t need to read my notes to know what’s wrong. [...] My family origins are the subject of attacks," he continued. The Moroccans say I am an agent of the Algerians and the Algerians say my grandfather chose France... [...] I passionately love Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria." Gérald Darmanin also assured that the French State is ready to support Muslims. "If people take their structuring seriously, if they see the hope it arouses, let them organize accordingly and show solidarity with each other, it is not only Heaven but the State that will help them," he concluded.