Excerpt:
President Emmanuel Macron is preparing to tackle head-on France’s troubled past and present relations with organised Islam, with sweeping changes that could infuriate Muslim leaders.
The 40-year-old, in power for one year, is struggling with domestic crises despite growing international acclaim, yet he is about to delve into religion.
In June he is expected to announce curbs on foreign involvement in Islam, as well as the creation of a national organisation for Europe’s largest Muslim population.
This could replace or reform the CFCM (Conseil Français du Culte Musulman, or French Muslim Council), established in 2003 by a former president, Nicolas Sarkozy, when he was interior minister in Jacques Chirac’s centre-right government.