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ISLAM

Halal tax and Arabic in French schools: New plan to stop Islamic fundamentalism in France

A new report by a Paris think-tank underlines "the progress of Islamist ideology among Muslims in France", suggesting that Salafi Islam can be stamped out through a “halal tax” and Arabic being taught in French schools.

Halal tax and Arabic in French schools: New plan to stop Islamic fundamentalism in France
Photos: AFP

According to the report released on Sunday by France’s Montaigne Institute, Salafism – a radical branch of Islam that calls for worldwide sharia law – has a monopoly on Islamic religious thought in l’Héxagone. 

Author Hakim El Karaoui, a consultant for the Paris think-thank who’s written on Arab and Muslim policy before, points to Turkey and Saudi Arabia as the main sources of funding for the dissemination of this radical school of thinking among France and Europe’s Muslim population.

The Montaigne Institute study highlights that this opaque financing pays for the promotion of Arabic learning among France’s Muslims at institutions that have a marked fundamentalist political-religious stance rather than just a linguistic one, the report suggests.

Through these obscure Islamic schools Salafi indoctrination “is gaining ground in France”, especially among “young people under 35”, El Karaoui suggests.

But rather than call for a ban on the Salafi schools altogether, the Montaigne Institute essayists would rather beat them at their own game.

El Karaoui has proposed that the French government incorporate Arabic into the education syllabus so that the indoctrination schools’ alleged language teaching offering becomes redundant.

“The number of students learning Arabic in France’s secondary and high schools has halved. But the rate has multiplied by ten in mosques,” El Karaoui explains.

READ ALSO: Provocative survey reveals French hostility toward Muslims

The liberal think-tank also wants the creation of an official Muslim Association for Islam in France (Amif), an open institution it hopes can stamp out the country’s underground fundamentalist movement.

“The idea is to create a neutral organization, independent from any Muslim country, free from the control of those in charge of France’s mosques, and the French State,” El Karaoui told RTL.

“The objective is neutrality, at the moment funding channels (for Islam in France) are opaque.”

For this the think-tank proposes the introduction of a ‘halal tax’ on food products and other services for Muslims who would allow the association to be self-sufficient.

“There is no halal tax levied by the state,” said El Karaoui, a former banker.

“The levy would be managed by the association and inspired by the kosher tax of the Jewish community, managed by the rabbinates that certify kosher products.

“Contrary to popular belief Muslims are wealthier and they practice their religion a lot.”

“There is therefore more and more money related to consumption: the pilgrimage, halal, Muslim gifts.”

“This is a levy that can be organized by the Muslim community for the Muslim community,” El Karaoui told Europe 1. 

According to El Karaoui stopping the spread of Islamic fundamentalism in Europe is largely up to Muslims themselves, who need to urgently show opposition to extremism and set up structures that promote more openness. 

SEE ALSO: How France's Muslim population will grow in future


 

The think-tank's proposed measures certainly have their critics, such as French Senate representative for France's Vendée department Bruno Retailleau, who tweeted that the “the institutionalisation or nationalisation of Islam France is dangerous because it is contrary to France's law of separation of Religion and State. A state halal tax would be unconstitutional. Concordatory Islam is a dead end”.

 

 

 

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ISLAM

Mosques in Cologne to start broadcasting the call to prayer every Friday

The mayor of Cologne has announced a two-year pilot project that will allow mosques to broadcast the call to prayer on the Muslim day of rest each week.

Mosques in Cologne to start broadcasting the call to prayer every Friday
The DITIP mosque in Cologne. Photo: dpa | Henning Kaiser

Mosques in the city of the banks of the Rhine will be allowed to call worshippers to prayer on Fridays for five minutes between midday and 3pm.

“Many residents of Cologne are Muslims. In my view it is a mark of respect to allow the muezzin’s call,” city mayor Henriette Reker wrote on Twitter.

In Muslim-majority countries, a muezzin calls worshippers to prayer five times a day to remind people that one of the daily prayers is about to take place.

Traditionally the muezzins would call out from the minaret of the mosque but these days the call is generally broadcast over loudspeakers.

Cologne’s pilot project would permit such broadcasts to coincide with the main weekly prayer, which takes place on a Friday afternoon.

Reker pointed out that Christian calls to prayer were already a central feature of a city famous for its medieval cathedral.

“Whoever arrives at Cologne central station is welcomed by the cathedral and the sound of its church bells,” she said.

Reker said that the call of a muezzin filling the skies alongside church bells “shows that diversity is both appreciated and enacted in Cologne”.

Mosques that are interested in taking part will have to conform to guidelines on sound volume that are set depending on where the building is situated. Local residents will also be informed beforehand.

The pilot project has come in for criticism from some quarters.

Bild journalist Daniel Kremer said that several of the mosques in Cologne were financed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, “a man who opposes the liberal values of our democracy”, he said.

Kremer added that “it’s wrong to equate church bells with the call to prayer. The bells are a signal without words that also helps tell the time. But the muezzin calls out ‘Allah is great!’ and ‘I testify that there is no God but Allah.’ That is a big difference.”

Cologne is not the first city in North Rhine-Westphalia to allow mosques to broadcast the call to prayer.

In a region with a large Turkish immigrant community, mosques in Gelsenkirchen and Düren have been broadcasting the religious call since as long ago as the 1990s.

SEE ALSO: Imams ‘made in Germany’: country’s first Islamic training college opens its doors

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