This is an unprecedented event in Touraine. A fifty faithful of the mosque of Bouzignac, on the banks of the Cher, gathered at Place Jean-Jaurès in Tours, this Saturday afternoon. Grouped together in a Collective for Democracy and Transparency, they denounce a “political Islamism” promoted by the leaders of the place of worship, managed since its creation by the association Libre Echange.
Links between leaders of the mosque and the Islamist movement PSM
At the center of the event, the links between Libre Exchange and the PSM Center association. This organisation, Muslim Participation and Spirituality, created in the region in 2004, is said to be close to political Islamism. “It has been qualified by justice as an Islamist movement which has political projects to overthrow political regimes in the Arab-Muslim world to install Islamist regimes”, explains Mohamed, one of the representatives of the Collective for Democracy and Transparency.
According to him and the other faithful demonstrators, there is no doubt about the links between Bouzignac and PSM. According to the latest statutes of PSM Center, dating from 2006 and which we have been able to consult, the president of the association is none other than Hamid El Archi, also president of the mosque. “Our mosque is a place of worship, it is not a seat to set up political projects”, denounces Mohamed.
A political coloring that worries some faithful
An opinion shared by Fatima. “When you go to a mosque, it’s to recharge your batteries. It’s a place to live only for prayer, not for politics”. According to her, politics would already interfere in certain spiritual evenings or prayers, with religious teachings that would not be in the Koran. “We have seen some practices related to PSM inside the mosque. We cannot know what dimension it may take on afterwards”, worries Mohamed.
On the side of those responsible for the mosque – whom we have not been able to reach – we reject these accusations as a whole. Quoted by our colleagues from The New Republic, President Hamid El Archi challenges “totally false allegations” and regret the action “of a tiny minority, of people who claim justice but sow discord”.