Sailing: the CFCM reframes Chems-eddine Hafiz after his comments on “Islamist ideology”
The French Council of Muslim Faith (CFCM) reacted strongly, in a press release published in Paris on September 8, 2026, to the comments made the day before by Chems-eddine Hafiz, rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris. These statements were made during an exchange broadcast on France Inter, Sunday September 7, between Chems-eddine Hafiz and Jean-Philippe Tanguy, deputy of the National Rally. The discussion focused in particular on the RN’s proposal aimed at wearing the veil in public spaces.
While affirming his opposition to a ban on the veil, Chems-eddine Hafiz declared to the RN deputy: “When you talk about the fight against Islamist ideology, why don’t we attack the origin? Why are we tackling one of the consequences? » He also said he was willing to “work together” to fight against this ideology. It is precisely this presentation of the veil as one of the “consequences” of Islamist ideology which provokes the reaction of the CFCM. For the Muslim organization, establishing such a link risks giving credence to the conflation according to which wearing the veil constitutes in itself a marker of Islamism.
The CFCM believes that a personality occupying a position as symbolic as that of rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris should, on the contrary, contribute to clearly distinguishing a religious practice from an extremist ideology. “A religious authority must not serve as a guarantee for amalgamations,” insists the organization. The press release also recalls a previous position taken by Chems-eddine Hafiz. In April 2025, interviewed after Bruno Retailleau’s “Down with the veil”, he declared: “I have already said that the veil should not exist in France today”. Comments that the CFCM considers difficult to reconcile with the defense of religious freedom and with the own religious teachings of the Grand Mosque of Paris on this issue.
Beyond the dispute between the two institutions, the CFCM places the debate above all in the area of individual freedoms. He recalls that a woman must be able to choose to wear or not wear the veil, as long as her outfit respects the law, and emphasizes that veiled Muslim women regularly face discrimination, humiliation and sometimes attacks.
The CFCM therefore responds unambiguously to the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris: “The veil has the right to exist in France and is not a consequence of an Islamist ideology. »
While the National Rally seeks precisely to make the veil a political and ideological marker, the question raised by this controversy is a serious one: can a Muslim religious authority take up this vocabulary without offering, in spite of itself, arguments to those who want to restrict the freedom of Muslim women?
