Muslim worship leaders and associative actors sent an open letter to Senate President Gérard Larcher, denouncing the stigmatization of French Muslims. The move responds to a Republican senators' report proposing measures against Islamist entryism. The signatories express fatigue over the political instrumentalization of their religious practices.
On November 26, an open letter was sent to the Senate President by Muslim community figures, including worship leaders and field actors. Addressed to Gérard Larcher, it responds to the report unveiled the previous day by the Senate commission on combating Islamism, led by Les Républicains (LR) senators. The document proposes bans such as wearing the veil and fasting before age 16, intensified action against forced marriages, and strengthened secularism in sports, aimed at countering « Islamist entryism ».
Signatories include Najat Benali from the Coordination of Muslim Associations in Paris, Bassirou Camara from the Association for Defense Against Discrimination and Anti-Muslim Acts, Mohamed Ould Kerroubi from the Council of Muslim Institutions in Yvelines, and Abdenour Bastianelli from the National Council of Muslim Chaplaincies. Several are members of the Forum of Islam in France (Forif), an entity designated by public authorities.
« We take note of the recent publication of the Senate commission's report dedicated to the “fight against Islamism” and its accompanying proposals », they write. They denounce a « bidding war of sensationalist publications », approximate reports, and biased surveys flooding public space, fostering an « industrial production of suspicion ». This trend, they argue, instills fear of the other and undermines national cohesion, representing a serious deviation from republican principles.
They reference an IFOP poll from November 18, titled « State of the Relationship to Islam and Islamism Among French Muslims », subtitled « between re-Islamization and Islamist temptation », which has been challenged by Islam specialists for methodological biases.