PARIS — The arrest of Daw Meskine, Secretary General of the French Council for Imams, and his son on suspicion of money laundering activities linked to a "terrorist" organization has sent shockwaves across the sizable Muslim minority.
"We are in contact with the Interior Ministry to find out why he has been detained," Zuhir Burik, the council's president, told IslamOnline.net.
He said the arrest raises many questions.
"Meskine is a prominent and respected Muslim figure and is well known to French authorities and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy himself," he noted.
Interior ministry sources told IOL Meskine and his son were arrested on Monday, June 19, as part of a probe into the funding of his al-Najah school and a farm he owns in northern France, which he has turned into as a summer camp for the school students.
Some 20 members of Meskine's family and aides were arrested in the swoop ordered by Paris prosecutors.
The sources said the arrests are linked to an investigation into laundering money coming from Gulf countries and money laundering activities linked to a terrorist organization.
Meskine had told IOL that funding for his private school comes largely from donation made by students' parents and members of the Muslim minority.
Meskine, of Tunisian background, is a leading figure of the sizable Muslim minority, estimated between six and seven million.
He helped jumpstart inter-faith dialogue in France, home to the biggest Muslim minority in Europe.
Rebukes
The arrest drew fire from officials in his al-Najah school, France's first private Muslim high school which is located in the northern Paris suburb of Aubervilliers.
"The arrest came 15 days before approving state funds for the school," a well-place source told IOL, requesting anonymity.
"It is only meant to deprive the school from state funding," he charged.
Under law, private schools qualify to receive state finances after operating independently for five consecutive years.
School staff also blasted the arrest.
"It was made to happen with the end of the school year when the majority of French Muslims go on summer holidays to abort any mobilization for his release," said Abdul-Hafez, a school teacher.
"It is also because of Meskine's criticism of the French Council of Muslim Faith (CFCM) which was not seen unfavorable by Sarkozy," he added.
Sarkozy has said that police would be granted extra powers to expel more “radical” imams from the country in the wake of the London bombings, which killed 56 people.
http://islamonline.net/English/News/2006-06/21/01.shtml