A conference held to oppose the “racism” of Prime Minister Boris Johnson hosted a speaker condemned by a judge for “legitimising” the 2014 terror attack against the Jewish Museum in Brussels.
Marwan Muhammad, former director of the Collective against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), spoke at Stand Up To Racism’s conference last weekend, which was attended by thousands.
Prominent trade union figures attended the gathering, including newly elected Unite general secretary Sharon Graham, and Kevin Courtney, joint General Secretary of the National Education Union.
CCIF was forced to close last year under a law designed to combat organisations promoting discrimination, hatred or violence, a decision upheld last month by France’s Council of State, its highest court.
The group has been accused of spreading Islamist propaganda following the murder of schoolteacher Samuel Paty in 2020.
In its recent ruling, the Council of State said the group had “close links with supporters of radical Islamism”.
The judge said Mr Muhammad “publicly made statements tending to relativize, even legitimize, the attacks against the Jewish Museum in Brussels in 2014 and against the newspaper Charlie Hebdo in 2015”. During the attack on the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels, a gunman opened fire indiscriminately, killing four people.
The judge further accused CCIF of having “promoted the theses” of a former treasurer of Muslim group Anâ-Muslim, an organisation described by France 24 as “close to the jihadist Salafist ideology”. The court rejected, however, claims that CCIF directly supported terrorism, saying “the fact that the CCIF maintains links with the radical Islamist movement does not in itself establish that it would encourage or legitimize acts of terrorism”.
Introducing Mr Muhammad, chair Barbara Ntumy described CCIF as, “the most prominent human rights NGO supporting Muslims in France.” Mr Muhammad condemned the French government for trying to “target” NGOs.
He said: “The sole fact that the CCIF claims that there is structural Islamophobia in France and that the government has a political responsibility for the continuation of this Islamophobia, this in and of itself constitutes in the eye of the highest court an incitement to hatred against France because it gives a bad image of France.”
Chair Nadiya Sayed thanked Mr Muhammad for his appearance, expressing her “solidarity” with “activists fighting Islamophobia in France”.
The ‘mobilising the anti-racist majority’ conference was also attended by pro-Corbyn MP Diane Abbott.
When contacted by the JC, Mr Muhammad said he rejected altogether the claims of the court as it had merely repeated politically motivated statements made by French interior minister Gérald Darmanin.
He said CCIF was dissolved as a means to repress Muslim civil society, and that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have spoken out against the forced dissolution of CCIF.
Stand up to Racism said: “The conference last weekend was focused on uniting communities against racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia and all forms of racism.
“There were a number of speakers including Colette Levy, a Jewish woman who was a hidden child that fled the Nazi regime in Vichy France.
“Marwan Muhammad wholeheartedly rejects the allegations regarding him. We have not found any evidence in this regard.
“We understand the French court made an administrative decision not based on terrorism and that Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and 16 other human rights organisations found the court’s decision politically motivated, with no legal basis and set a dangerous precedent for freedom of expression and association.”
