During the breaking of the fast on Thursday, March 6, 2025, Imam Hassen Chalghoumi celebrated the “Iftar of Peace” Several personalities participated in this highly symbolic meal.
Between the Republic and Hassen Chalghoumi, things could have gone very badly… Trained in a madrassa (Koranic school) in Pakistan and most likely subject to fundamentalist influences, the man who would become an imam did not choose to be a preacher of hatred. Carrying out his function in Drancy, the city that housed the internment and transit camp for Jews who were then deported to Auschwitz, Chalghoumi took the Holocaust to the heart and soul.
This is no doubt why, as early as 2006, taking part in a commemoration, he declared: “ that from the same family, the children of Israel and Ishmael are cousins “. Since then, he has made trips to Israel and multiplied interreligious dialogue initiatives to bring Muslims and Jews closer together: for example, in 2013, with a ceremony to pay tribute to the deportees of Drancy (co-organized with the writer Marek Halter and bringing together imams and rabbis).
Imam, republican and secular
The ecumenical approach of this atypical imam is accompanied by an impeccable republicanism. Thus, in 2010, he unambiguously supported the law on the wearing of the full veil, declaring: ” the full veil is not a religious prescription, but a prison for women, a tool of sexist domination and Islamist recruitment”. We would like to hear such a strong defense of gender equality from certain elected officials who claim to be guarantors of republican values…
For those who doubt Hassen Chalghoumi’s conversion to republicanism, let us ask ourselves what his situation would be if he were to declare himself a supporter of the Salafist/Wahhabi line of Islam and preach hatred of France, the Republic, secularism, Jews, homosexuals and women:
- the far left LFIste and a large part of the left would have endorsed him and supported him
- the so-called “reference” Islamo-leftist media would have made him the essential interlocutor of the public authorities and would present him as the indisputable moral authority representing all Muslims in France
- the money of the oil theocracies would water it in abundance
- His life and the lives of his family members would not be threatened
- the President of the Republic might have invited him to the Élysée Palace, to share a brunch with the terrorist president of Syria
In short, if he had adopted an Islamist profile, Hassen Chalghoumi would have been the darling of the wokisphere, like Rima Hassan; while having the opportunity to lead a life of luxury and lust, like Tarik Ramadan. And he would have renounced this destiny of a star to live hunted down and under police protection?
Hated by the far right, the far left and the Islamists
For the old far right, nostalgic for Pétainism, it is not so much Chalghoumi’s religion as his origin that poses a problem. The problem is that the imam is a North African, with a North African surname, a North African accent and a North African physical appearance! If he were to convert to a fundamentalist version of Catholicism and sing psalms to St Nicolas du Chardonnet while flagellating his chest, he would always be considered unassimilable! The defenders of consanguinity believe that belonging to the French nation is based only on ancestry: only those who can claim to be from a French lineage would therefore be French. Are the same people who organize masses in memory of the traitor Pétain able to understand that a Boualem Sansal, naturalized only since 2024, will always be infinitely more French, through the ink spilled in the service of the Francophonie, than many pro-European politicians, no doubt “native French”, but who deeply hate our country?
The Soralians, for their part, ruled that Chalghoumi was the “dog” of the Zionists. In short, by calling the imam a dog, they have slavishly plagiarized one of the favorite insults of the Islamists, their masters…
As for the anti-Semitic, anti-French and anti-secular far left, it vomits Chalghoumi because, precisely, he is neither anti-Semitic, nor anti-French, nor anti-secular! Last March, LFI MP Rima Hassan, in a tweet addressed to the imam of Drancy, wrote: ” It is high time for the Muslims of France to get you out “. How should we interpret these words? Clearing where? How do you get out of the way? The muse of the pro-Hamas cruise passengers repeated last August, posting a new message in which the imam’s surname is mentioned, this time accompanied by an hourglass emoticon. Is this an allusion to the passing of time? To the time that would remain to the imam? To the time that would remain before what? Let’s hope that the justice system, so quick to judge and convict so-called right-wing personalities, will show the same speed with this far-left elected official.
Finally, the Islamists use social networks to pour out a barrage of insults and threats on Chalghoumi every day: he is said to be an apostate, a traitor, a false imam and, the ultimate insult, a Zionist. In short, he is a target.
There is a good chance that a man who sees the co-hatred of the anti-Semitic far right, the anti-Semitic far left and anti-Semitic Islamists converge on him (sorry for all these pleonasms) is finally a good guy…
The Alchemist Imam
Like Christianity or Judaism, Islam is plural. What divergences in inner faith and practice between the Senegalese follower of a Sufi brotherhood and an Afghan Taliban! The first is in search of meaning, the second is in search of blood; The first is in a contemplative and mystical approach of spiritual elevation supposed to bring him closer to his God, the second is in a logic of jihadist action that offers him a license to kill in the name of his God. Who would dare to claim that the god of meditation is the same god as the god of Kalashnikovs and knives?
In this regard, Imam Chalghoumi proposes yet another innovative and revolutionary approach to Islam: a republican and French Islam. And it is in this that he is not only an imam, but also an alchemist (a word whose etymology refers to the Arabic “al-kimiya”, meaning chemistry, transformation).
In medieval times, alchemists were looking for the mythical “philosopher’s stone”, which, according to legend, would change base metals into precious metals. The “Great Work” that the alchemist Imam Chalghoumi pursues is the transformation of Islam in France (currently under the influence of the Wahhabi/Salafist current) into an Islam of France, i.e. a faith that is peaceful and compatible with the French Republic (1). In other words, it is a question of elaborating the philosopher’s stone of politics, which would allow the transformation of vile passions (such as intolerance) into civil peace, which is far more valuable than all the gold in the world!
Chalghoumi’s bet
The ecumenical and republican approach of Imam Hassen Chalghoumi illustrates the following sentence of Voltaire, taken from his “Philosophical Letters” (or “English Letters”): “ If there were only one religion in England, despotism would be to be feared; if there were two, they would cut each other’s throats; but there are thirty of them, and they live in peace and happiness .” The imam of Drancy understood that the religious pluralism of our secular Republic is the only guarantee of tolerance in the face of Islamist supremacism that generates interreligious violence.
The Chalghoumian version of Islam – a moderate Islam compatible with the Republic – is a bet, similar to Pascal’s, on the existence of God. The future of France depends on this bet. If Chalghoumi’s bet succeeds, the gain will be civil harmony; if the gamble fails, and the fundamentalist version of Islam prevails, the future of France will be civil war. Between Chalghoumi and St. Bartholomew’s Day, some of our elected officials have already chosen…
What are we waiting for to appoint Hassen Chalghoumi as Minister Delegate to the Minister of the Interior and in charge of the administration of religions?
Thank you, Hassen Chalghoumi.
(1) In his book entitled “For Islam in France”, Chalghoumi deplores foreign interference in the management of Islam on French territory.
