PRES.MACRON CHAIRS THE FORUM OF ISLAM OF FRANCE AT ELYSEE PALACE TO REPLACE CFCM

USPA NEWS - This Thursday, February 16, the President of the Republic received at the Elysée Palace the members of the Forum de l'Islam de France.
Launched in 2022, the Forum de l'Islam de France is a body for direct dialogue between the players in the field of the Muslim faith and the public authorities. Its work revolves around four themes:

• the professionalization and recruitment of imams,
• the training of chaplains,
• the law and management of associations exercising the Muslim faith,
• the protection of Muslim places of worship.
• After presenting their work, the rapporteurs of each group presented the President of the Republic with concrete proposals to improve the organization of worship in France. This plenary meeting was also an opportunity to present the French Institute of Islamology, also launched in 2022, which aims to become the center of excellence for the university study of Islam in France.

The event ended with a speech by President Emmanuel Macron in which he insisted on the fight against political Islamism, respect for the principle of secularism in order to live together in the Republic and the need to quickly implement the proposals presented.

THIS IS NOT A USPA FULL REPORT COVERAGE OF THE FRENCH PRESIDENCY HOSTED EVENT, DUE TO OBSTRUCTION/DISABILITY .
USPA, having been unable to cover this event, we are publishing the translation of an excerpt from the Remarks as it was delivered by the French President Macron.

REMARKS ADDRESSED BY FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON (Excerpt)
"Minister,
Ladies Ministers,
Ladies and gentlemen parliamentarians,
Mr. Prefect of the region,
Ladies and gentlemen in your ranks and qualities.

First of all, thank you very much for the work and all these months of progress and today's report and thank you, Deputy Director, also for all the work that has been carried out. I really want to pay tribute here to the work, and you said so, to all the administrations, all the partners and all the volunteers who took their time to advance this common cause.

Indeed, I am very happy on this day to be among you, one year after the launch of the first FORIF and in the bottom of the spirit that I wish more deeply for all this work, that is to say to be able have a peaceful, full-fledged debate between the State and the Muslim faith, under the aegis of the Republic, and focused on concrete solutions. And basically, to bring to life what our secularism is, which is not the prohibition of any religion whatsoever but the possibility of living together in the Republic with this freedom to believe and not to believe, and in absolutely respecting all the laws of the Republic.

No more no less. And to do it without it being the occasion of a difficulty, a drama, a crisis, but to be able to move forward because the path is ahead of us and we still have a lot of things to do, because if everything was falling perfectly in a way we wouldn't have to go through these jolts and deal with the matter. And this is the very story, moreover, both of what the French Nation is and of our Republic. It's never a given. It's a daily fight, a plebiscite, as Renan would have said, a commitment. But behind this commitment, there is a pact of knowledge, a pact of recognition, a pact of will. And this triple pact is the very one around which all of your work, Professor, you have just said for part of what concerns this triptych, it is what all of your work has led to move forward. So, indeed, during the speech I made at Les Mureaux, I spoke of a republican awakening, a few weeks unfortunately before a new attack on our soil and a terrorist attack again. But this republican awakening of Les Mureaux, by naming separatism, aimed to awaken, if I may say so, in a very concrete way, without opposing, unfolding the causes and dealing one by one with the roots of our common difficulties. Here I really want to thank the Minister of the Interior, all of his teams, thank the parliamentarians, all of them involved, the rapporteur in particular, for the work that has been carried out, so that this speech then becomes a text of law, that it be applied gradually by all the administrations and players. And despite the doubts of some, I also thank the representatives of Muslims for having accepted this new law of the Republic without appealing. The commitments made have been kept. I will not come back to this with regard to public order and the neutrality of the State, the control of associations, schools, but each time with respect for public freedoms and above all with the aim of combating Islamism , that is to say, to dissipate the air of suspicion and all forms of confusion that had been able to settle, and to simply allow the sincere, personal expression of faith. Our action against political Islamism in recent years has yielded concrete results. I go here to recall them. Nearly 28,000 control operations. 906 establishments closed temporarily or permanently. 54 million, even a little more, adjusted or recovered. More than 600 reports made under article 40 of the code of criminal procedure. The accompaniment towards the law of 1905 of the places of worship, as the Mosque of Paris does courageously of which I thank the rector. It has also put an end to the system of education in the language and culture of origin, the famous ELCO, which have been replaced by international education in foreign languages, the EILE, which no longer escapes the control of National Education. , unlike the ELCO system and allow us to put all of these practices back into the hands of the Republic and the education we want for our children. (Excerpt of French President Macron's Remark as it was delivered at Elysee Palace on February 16, Source : Elysee French Presidency)