France’s Muslim community was left confused and increasingly frustrated after the Grand Mosque of Paris broke with the country’s main Islamic representative body CFCM and unilaterally declared the start of Ramadan a day earlier, in a move widely viewed as politically driven and aligned with Algerian state decisions rather than France-based astronomical criteria.
The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), long the official interlocutor of the French government on religious matters, announced that Ramadan would begin on Thursday, based on scientific moon-sighting calculations used across Europe.
But only hours later, the Grand Mosque of Paris, led by Algerian proxy Chems-Eddine Hafiz,- who in recent months has taken public positions echoing Algiers’ stance amid diplomatic tensions with Paris- declared that Ramadan would instead begin on Wednesday.
The Grand Mosque of Paris was built by Moroccan artisans and inaugurated by Sultan Moulay Youssef in 1926.
Many Moroccans in particular reacted with anger, accusing the Grand Mosque of acting as an extension of Algeria’s religious bureaucracy rather than a French institution serving the country’s diverse Muslim population.
Community leaders including Mona Bennani told Hespress she was “shocked and deeply disappointed” by what she called a politically motivated decision that ignored both scientific standards and communal unity.
The mosque’s leadership, rooted in well-known Algerian networks, had chosen to follow Algiers rather than join major Islamic centers in Lyon, Brussels and the CFCM, all of which set Thursday as the start of the fast.
This kind of contradiction embarrasses Muslims everywhere and shows the extent to which the Algerian regime is ready to manipulate religion.
Community figures said the controversy should serve as a wake-up call, urging an end to the politicization of Islamic practice in France.
