Lyon Mosque Leader Rejects National Imam Council Proposal

The Council of Mosques of the Rhône will not approve "any evolution that will be done without the necessary transparency and without the support of all the mosques," said Kamel Kabtane, president of the Council of Mosques of the Rhône (CMR), saying he is "very doubtful" in the face of "a very important decision made in haste."

Several mosques in France, and even those grouped within the CMR, are independent associations, many of which do not adhere to the CFCM, let alone the federations that compose it. Thus, the CFCM’s suggestions "will only reinforce the disinterest that Muslims in France have cultivated since 2003 towards a structure imposed from above and which has no legitimacy, nor any mandate from the base," estimated Mr. Kabtane.

Moreover, his opinion coincides with that of the Grand Imam of Bordeaux, Tareq Oubrou, who denounced "artifices" and the lack of consultation of the imams on the part of the CFCM, a week ago.

For the record, the CNI is to create "a procedure for accrediting imams at the national level, based on their religious knowledge, teaching skills and human qualities," the president of the CFCM, Mohammed Moussaoui, had declared when announcing its creation. In addition, the creation of such an institution, which has been discussed several times but never realized in recent decades, had been officially requested by the French president, in his speech in Les Mureaux, when he outlined his strategy to fight "separatisms" in early October.