Like every Friday around 2 p.m., during the most important prayer of the week, the Evry-Courcouronnes mosque, one of the largest in France, is packed. On June 21, Khalil Merroun, the rector of this institution belonging to Maliki Islam, the majority Sunni current in France, does not avoid the political context. “I am worried about living together and humanism”, he says in his introductory speech, in front of some 1,500 faithful. Refusing to give voting instructions, he warns his audience: “Abstention is France’s worst enemy. If you don’t vote, you won’t be able to say afterwards: I couldn’t do anything! »
As an aside, this septuagenarian native of Morocco, who arrived in Evry in 1972, would like to point out that he is “became French even before Bardella [Jordan Bardella, président du Rassemblement national, RN] be born ». While a strong majority of Muslims would have boycotted the polls during the European elections (59%, according to the French Institute of Public Opinion), Khalil Merroun assures that he wants “nip abstention in the bud”.
If he refuses to target only the RN (because “there is also a violent minority on the far left”), the rector confides that he has “fear that the extremes will come to power, not only for Muslims, but for France”. “Pointing the finger at Islam or making anti-Semitic speeches seems to some to be the only path to power… What does that say about their ability to defend the French? About their economic skills? About their social project?”he asks.
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At the exit of the mosque, however, not everyone seems ready to respond to the rector’s call: “Politics doesn’t interest me”, “anyway, they are all the same, it’s money that governs”, “Bardella or not, we will see what will change”, slip a few faithful in a hurry, refusing to express themselves. Many display a distance from the political situation, despite the possible victory of an extreme right which has long threatened to intervene in the lives of Muslims, in the name of the fight against radical Islam.
“They will never push us to renounce our faith”
“Faith makes us optimistic, no matter the situation. And then there are millions of us in France, they won’t be able to throw us all out.”relativizes Amir Ben Majed, not particularly worried about it. “We’re used to anti-Muslim speeches anyway”adds this 36-year-old lawyer, who nevertheless admits to fearing seeing these ideas “earn publicity”. “Today, it is already less easy to be called Mohamed than François when applying for certain positions. This is likely to get worse…”, he admits. But he already deplores “all the energy and time we put into criticizing Islam in public debate. France is declining, losing influence year after year. Instead of uniting all the brains and talents to change this, we prefer to divide us”.
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