Politically isolated within the CFCM (French Council of the Muslim Faith), following the adoption of a “charter of principles” rejecting “foreign interference and the instrumentalization of Islam for political purposes”, the three currents of so-called “political” Islamism, which are the French formerly UOIF, the French branch of the Muslim Brotherhood), Foi et pratique (linked to the Tabligh movement) and the Milli Gürüs (the Turkish branch of the Muslim Brotherhood), also find themselves under heavy fire from the Departmental Cells for the Fight against Islamism and Community Withdrawal (CLIR), whose increased controls have hit these Islamist organisations hard, particularly in the wallet!

Barely one year after the creation of the first CLIR, set up in Bobigny on 21 February 2020 (three days after President Macron’s speech on Islamist separatism on 18 February in Mulhouse), 101 of these cells, steered by the prefects, have been created. They now cover the entire French territory. And according to a first report, established by the Ministry of the Interior on 3 March 2021, the CLIRs have carried out 7112 controls, which have led to the closure of 492 establishments open to the public and, above all, have imposed a record number of financial adjustments on Islamist associations: 42.5 million euros!

While waiting for the promulgation of the “law reinforcing the respect of the principles of the Republic”, which will incriminate “separatism” and “hate speech”, described by the Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin, as a “breeding ground for terrorism”, the public authorities only have two levers to target separatist organisations and places of worship: a direct link with terrorism or infringements of the rules applicable to establishments open to the public.

According to our sources, the Minister Delegate for Citizenship, Marlène Schiappa, has sent the prefectures, which manage the CLIRs, an “operational tool” intended to “mobilise all the levers to hinder sources of separatism”, in the form of 15 thematic action sheets (school inspections, inspections of associations and places of worship, referrals to Tracfin, etc.)

Money being the sinews of the (ideological) war waged by Islamist organisations, and especially the Muslim Brotherhood, which are masters of financial Taqqiya (duplicity) designed to hide their assets and sources of funding, the referrals by the CLIRs to Tracfin (an agency of the Ministry of the Economy and Finance responsible for the fight against tax fraud, money laundering and the financing of terrorism) as well as to other social organisations (CAF, URSAAF, Labour Inspectorates, etc.), are proving to be a formidable weapon for hitting the Islamists in the wallet: 42.5 million euros of adjustments, that’s as much money that will not be used for indoctrination and the propagation of Islamist hate speech!