PARIS – A French non-Muslim politician has been appointed to head the new Islam foundation formed by the French government to improve relations with Muslim, a decision which has sparked controversy across the country.
“It’s a joke,” civil rights activist Yasser Louati, whose work focuses on issues of Islamophobia and national security, told FRANCE 24 on Tuesday, August 30, referring to the appointment of Jean-Pierre Chevènement.
“We keep treating Muslims as if they are foreign people who need to be disciplined.”
The decision to appoint Chevènement to lead the newly formed foundation, which aims to improve relations between the state and the Muslim community, was announced on Monday.
Chevènement, a 77-year-old career politician whose previous posts include defense as well as interior minister, was chosen following a meeting between current Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and Muslim community leaders in Paris.
The aim of the discussions was to forge “an Islam anchored in the values of the French Republic,” Cazeneuve said on Monday.
Criticizing the decision, Louati argued that the organization needs a bottom-up, and not a top-down approach to succeed.
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.
“It is like me appointing Ronald Reagan to head up African-American affairs,” Louati said.
Ghaleb Bencheikh, an author and expert on Islam, who will sit on the organisation’s board, said that Chevènement is an acceptable choice in the short-term, when the main aim is to get the project up and running.
He added that the appointment of a Muslim to lead the body would have been “ideal.”
Chevènement has been in hot water recently over comments saying that Muslims should be “discreet” and try to blend in.
He also said that there were 135 nationalities in a racially diverse suburb of Paris, but one has almost disappeared, referring to French nationals.
Tensions with the Islamic community were heightened this summer when nearly 30 towns in France banned the full-body burkini swimsuit.
On Tuesday the human rights office of the United Nations called the burkini ban “a grave and illegal breach of fundamental freedoms”, and a “stupid reaction” to the recent attacks.
The UN wants French officials to lift the bans “immediately,” said Robert Colville, spokesman for the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
France’s top administrative court suspended the ban in one Riviera town on Friday, but the mayors of several other towns said they would ignore the decision.