Ramadan: Despite diplomatic tensions, France grants visas to Algerian imams

As Ramadan approaches, which will be held between March 1 and 29, several million Muslims are preparing to celebrate the "blessed month of fasting," according to the Islamic rite. The problem is that France does not have enough imams for the faithful to fully practice their religion during this period. To remedy this, France has granted, as it does every year, several dozen visas to foreign reciters, who will come to recite the Koran in mosques.

A system also open to Algerian imams, who have received the same authorizations... despite the execrable diplomatic context between Paris and Algiers . Despite the assumed standoff with the Algerian regime, which among other things refuses to take back its nationals forced to leave French territory, Place Beauvau assumes its policy of welcoming "a few dozen" Algerian imams. "If we prevent them from coming for Ramadan, it is not Algeria that will be bothered, but Muslims in France. We would be targeting the wrong people. A detestable message would be sent to Muslims, it would be the worst way to do it" , analyzes a close friend of Bruno Retailleau. According to whom "there are a thousand other ways to send messages to the Algerian regime, to play a report, than measures of harassment on the Muslim faith." "Freedom of worship, we have held on to it for centuries", he replies.

And the Interior Ministry is reassuring: "The imams that are sent to us are the subject of a precise list and are screened by the services, they come from different countries - Morocco, Turkey, Algeria - and are very controlled. The whole system is managed by the Minister of Religious Affairs." A close friend of Bruno Retailleau does not hesitate to draw a parallel with the Church of France, to which "priests from Africa" ​​are regularly sent. Or the Jewish faith, which benefits from the arrival of Israeli rabbis. "All faiths need manpower," adds the same source.