France’s Muslim Group Quietly Builds Europe’s Annual “Woodstock of Islam”

Dateline, Paris, France, 2017: The invisible sign reads: “Only Muslims Need Apply”. There is an annual conference in Europe serving as a kind of gathering for the Muslims, by the Muslims and of the Muslims, which is held in a suburb of Paris. It ought to be a cause for concern in the West. This conference is prepared and sponsored by “The Union of Islamic Organizations of France” (UIOF) – an umbrella organization that constitutes a major cultural threat to France and the West. It used to be different decades ago in 1983 when UIOF was founded by somewhat idealistic Arab students in France, some of whom were very secular and even pro-Communist in orientation. Today, however, the UIOF is a major Muslim Brotherhood organization outpost in the West, working at a feverish pace to promote the agenda of Islam, including campaigns to influence the Western legislation both at the national and the international level (the EU and the UN). Moreover, it carries its weight around in France’s domestic elections to prevent the patriotic forces from having a chance at winning national elections.

It is allied with other influential pan-Islamic organizations, such as Turkey, and the Saudi Arabia-backed Organization of Islamic Cooperation (which has been in the focus of this author’s prior articles) to lead the charge to attain the criminalization of defamation of religion (interpreted by the OIC to mean Islam only) to be enforced by leftist Western governments even if it means going against the West’s cherished “Free Speech” doctrine.  The OIC’s continued efforts have been backed by Muslim Brotherhood chief jurist Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, whose International Union of Muslim Scholars, also announced a renewed support for criminalizing free expression, going as far as filing anti free speech charges against France’s iconic Charlie Hebdo magazine for berating Muhammad. The most important members of OIC are Jordan, Egypt, U.A.E., Algeria and Turkey – whose initiatives for the OIC are known as “The Istanbul Process” because they were agreed upon in meetings in the Turkish capital.

The Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF) representatives claim to promote Islamic values while respecting the French Republic. Their mission is multifaceted and certainly sociopolitical in nature. Nonetheless, some of its former members and watchdogs have established that this organization is having close links with the international Muslim Brotherhood organization while hiding its true political aspirations. In 2014, the Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF), now an outpost of the Muslim Brotherhood, protested with anger its presence on a list of “terrorist organizations” established by the United Arab Emirates. And then even the American Islamic supremacist organization, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), protested its own appearance on that terror list along with several other Western Muslim organizations (including the Muslim American Society – a relatively obscure group founded by Muslim Brotherhood members in the 1990s during the very cozy relations between the Clinton Administration and Saudi Arabia). The Saudi Arabian royal establishment fears the international organization of Muslim Brotherhood because the latter does not recognize the political legitimacy of the royal House of Saud, however, there were and will always be areas of cooperation between the two. The Muslim Brotherhood may have formed a tacit non-aggression pact with the House of Saud. As long as the Saudis help out from time to time, the Brotherhood would not interfere in Saudi Arabia’s domestic situation.

Back to the UIOF. This dangerous umbrella group for Muslims in France boasts 250 Islamic member associations including mosque managers, and is one of the main organizations connecting the French Muslim landscape with the Grand Mosque of Paris (linked to Algeria and to the Algerian underground there), the RAMF [Annual Meeting of Muslims of France], the UMF (The French Mosques Union of Moroccans) or the CCMTF, the Coordinating Committee of Turkish Muslims in France. To clarify the activities of some of these organizations, the UMF is responsible for the training of French-Muslim religious figures and for their status as imams, morchidates (religious guides for Muslim females), and chaplains, as well as those responsible for mosque management associations. Even if it no longer participates in the governing bodies of the French Muslim Council (CFCM), the UIOF as the representative body of the first Muslim community in Europe (4 or 5 million members) organizes every year at Le Bourget (a Paris suburb) an event presented as the largest Muslim social gathering in the Western world, with more than 150,000 visiting Muslims in attendance (on average). In recent years, this Franco-Muslim organization has vicariously condemned the actions of the ISIS, signing an “appeal to the Muslims of France” against it and standing against the “deportation of Christians in Iraq”, as a clever way to blow smoke in the air for the sake of good PR.

For more than 34 years now, UIOF has been organizing an annual meeting that has become a must-see for Muslims in France, Europe and around the world: The Annual Meeting of Muslims of France (RAMF). By now a traditional event, the annual conference takes place over the course of three days every year in April on the old fair grounds in a suburb (called Le Bourget) ten kilometers from downtown Paris inside of a warehouse style building complex known as “Parc des Expositions”. As many as 200,000 Muslims show up there to imbibe the festive vapors of diluted Jihadism in a warm and fraternal atmosphere fit for the future leaders of an Islamic political takeover of Europe. Thanks to the rich variety of prejudiced characters, the conference’s national and international speakers of “renown” get there to deliver speeches in defense of Islamic causes in France and around the world. This event is highly useful for the purpose of building up the “we are always victims” ethos, and of aligning the political aims of Muslims in various countries in Europe (and the Middle East) through conversations, prayer groups and public speeches flavored with cultural and commercial exhibitions as well as artistic fancies put on display there.

This annual conference (a giant glorified Arab bazaar) is tasked with mixing men and women of all ages, from a plethora of nationalities with related political and religious issues, reflecting the composition of the worldwide society of Islam. Make no mistake about it, in spite of an apparent plurality there is no true intellectual diversity there! Their stated goals are to bring together the Muslims of France and Europe in all of their conditions in order to consolidate the obscure but real religious order that unites them, to deepen the understanding of Islam in order to achieve a more effective religious policy in conjunction with the liberal agenda of atheistic Western societies (read: how best to advance an outside religious agenda in a leftist environment), and to fine tune its political message to better align the agenda of the Muslim Consensus with the political schemes of Europe’s Left, both at the national and international level, through intellectual and cultural exchanges. For the purposes of attracting converts, the conference aims to be a space for entertainment and a friendly atmosphere conducive to inter-Islamic dialogue. For example, young French Muslim Brotherhood chapter members meet Albanian KLA veterans who turn around and meet France’s Muslim volunteers to Syria’s terrorist groups mislabeled on Mainstream Media as “freedom fighter” gangs – all under the guise of an Islamic art & life exhibit in a Paris suburb’s fairgrounds!? It is a “diwan” (a customary Muslim huddle around recliners for endless discussions) to discuss politics, list challenges and plot future plans of action. And the dark background music on the conference’s website perfectly aligns with the murky nature of this largely spiritless gathering. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi wins.

Cicero was right to cynically exclaim “O tempora! O mores!” (Oh, the times! Oh, the customs!) when he despaired about the social and cultural deformation of the Roman republic. Which French thinker today is there to bemoan the deformation of the French republic? Certainly not Bernard-Henri Levy.

An exceptional meeting, unique spaces at Le Bourget

For more than 34 years now, UOIF has organized a meeting that has become a must for Muslims in France, Europe and around the world: The Annual Meeting of Muslims of France (RAMF). An event of exceptional longevity, the meeting that will take place from 14 to 17 APRIL 2017, as every year, the Parc des Expositions in Paris-Le Bourget will welcome you in a warm and fraternal atmosphere.

Thanks to the richness of the conferences of national and international speakers of renown, cultural and commercial exhibitions as well as spiritual and artistic vigils, the RAMF constitutes the biggest meeting of the French and European Muslim community, with at least 170,000 visitors and participants. This event issues the challenge of mixing men and women of all ages, nationalities and political and religious trends, reflecting the remarkable composition of our society.

OUR GOALS:

• Bring together the Muslims of France and Europe in their diversity to consolidate the fraternity that unites us.

• To deepen the understanding of Islam in order to achieve an enlightened religious practice in harmony with our pluralistic societies.

• Contribute to the debates of society, national and international, through intellectual and cultural exchanges.

• Provide the public with a space for entertainment and a friendly atmosphere conducive to dialogue.

Islamic speakers at the conference make the case for Muslim participation in secular Western societies.

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