Posted on 10/17/2007 11:32:23 PM PDT by americanophile
PARIS (Reuters) - A French fund to help build mosques and finance Muslim projects will start work next week after a two-year delay caused mostly by tensions between President Nicolas Sarkozy and a failed rival for his job.
Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie announced on Wednesday the board of directors of the Foundation for Islamic Works would hold their first meeting on October 16.
The foundation had been in limbo since being launched by one of her predecessors in March 2005, Alliot-Marie remarked diplomatically at the Grand Mosque of Paris during an iftar dinner breaking the Ramadan fast.
"The inaugural meetings of the board of directors will take place on October 16," she added. "I hope a construction programme can be worked out in close cooperation with elected officials, especially with mayors."
The reason for the delay, which she left unmentioned but Muslim leaders present well knew, was that Dominique de Villepin launched the foundation while he was interior minister and Sarkozy shelved it when he replaced Villepin two months later.
The competition between Sarkozy and Villepin, who became prime minister in May 2005, was a feature of French politics for several years before Sarkozy's win in the May 2007 presidential election.
"Villepin launched the foundation and we were all very pleased, but then Sarkozy replaced him as interior minister and stuffed the plan in a drawer," said one Muslim official. Continued...
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.reuters.com ...
‘Another day, another mosque. Europe dies before our eyes...’
Yep - they’ll be lighting up the Eiffel Tower green for Eid next. . . . . . :(
They need this fund because the price of oil is so depressed and no money can be raised from the ME......
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