French Muslims to create body to finance mosques

A new foundation will be created to help finance mosques in France and keep out radical benefactors, the head of the French Muslim Council said on Monday.

Anouar Kbibech proposed the foundation would be used to fund the construction and running of mosques and would be financed by fees paid by actors in the halal food sector.

France, home to Europe’s largest Muslim community, is a secular state that prohibits the use of state money for places of worship. Prime minister Manuel Valls said on Sunday he wants to put an end to the financing from abroad for the construction of mosques.

“Almost all Muslims of France are attached to a serene, open, tolerant Islam and they are fully respecting the values and laws of the Republic,” Kbibech said on LCI television.

After meeting Kbebich, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said he wants the foundation to be launched in October. The debate about the financing of mosques in France was revived by last week’s slaying of an elderly priest in a Normandy church by two Islamic extremists. Some observers have suggested foreign influence over certain mosques and prayer rooms in France could encourage the radicalisation of attendants.