PARIS: An influential group representing French Muslims is proposing a tax on halal food to fund mosques and fight radicalisation in the wake of a seires of terror attacks.
Anouar Kbibech, president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), outlined plans for a new foundation that would help reduce foreign benefactors amid concerns over extremism.
The idea has been supported by politicians on both the right and left, although there are doubts where such a tax could be implemented.
“We have reached the first step with the signing with of a religious framework in the CFCM’s halal charter, which defines the criteria of halal in France. Halal supermarket in Paris told to sell pork and alcohol or face closure. Halal butchers firebombed with Molotov cocktail in Walsall. Mosques can ‘fund themselves’ through halal meat tax, says French politician
“In autumn we will discuss the second part, which is the financial contribution of halal organisations to worship.”
The money raised would go towards paying imams’ salaries and funding the construction and operation of mosques, which cannot receive state support under French law.
The proposal came after Manuel Valls, the French Prime Minister, called for a ban on foreign funding for Muslim places of worship amid concerns over extremism following a string of terror attacks. “There needs to be a thorough review to form a new relationship with French Islam,” he said.
