RAMF – The annual event (1983–2026)

Academic and professional profile: Makhlouf Mameche was born on 12 December 1968 in Bouria, Algeria. He holds a Master’s degree in political science from the University of Algiers and a PhD in history from the University of Lille III (2004–2008). He serves as imam and rector of the Grand Mosque of Lille.

Current position

President of Musulmans de France (since November 2025)

Educational foundations

In 2003, Mameche founded the Lycée Averroès, making it the first private Muslim secondary school under an association contract in mainland France. He is also the founder of the FNEM (National Federation of Private Muslim Education), which brings together French Muslim educational institutions.

Political career and background

Elected president of Musulmans de France on 8 November 2025 for a four-year term, he succeeded Mohssen Ngazou. His involvement in the brotherist network has been evident since the 2000s. The General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) has placed him under confirmed surveillance, as has the institution he chairs. According to an intelligence source dating from 2016, when he was deputy headteacher of the Lycée Averroès, Mameche is said to have positioned himself “against secularism and in favour of a global Islamic state” whilst advocating a “culture of secrecy” – observations that stand in stark contrast to his current public republican statements.

Funding of the Lycée Averroès and administrative controversy

The “Qatar Papers” investigation (2019) documents substantial funding: approximately €925,000 from Qatar Charity, plus €350,000 from the Arab League Development Bank. In 2007, a single Qatari donation of €500,000 accounted for 62% of the school’s annual budget. Mameche himself acknowledged in a 2015 promotional video that Qatar Charity “financed two-thirds of the total purchase price ”. In December 2023, the Prefect of the Nord department terminated the association contract for “breaches of republican values” and “links with the Muslim Brotherhood”. However, in April 2025, the Lille Administrative Court overturned this decision, ruling that the evidence was “insufficiently serious” and the procedure “marred by irregularities”.

Academic and professional profile: Originally from Nice, having studied in Nice and Metz, Mohssen Ngazou is a former mathematics teacher in the French national education system. He currently works as an educator and heads the Ibn Khaldoun secondary school in Marseille, which opened in 2009.

Previous role

Former President of Musulmans de France (2021–2025)

Institutional trajectory and school growth

Under his leadership, the private Muslim secondary school Ibn Khaldoun has expanded significantly, growing from 25 pupils to around 400. Ngazou was elected president of Musulmans de France in June 2021, a position he held until November 2025, when he was replaced by Makhlouf Mameche.

Ideological stance

According to several sources, Ngazou’s conception of Islam is rooted in the thinking of Hassan Al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. He is said to have deplored “modernisation, materialism and Western attractions” and urged young people to “conquer French political spheres, including the judiciary and decision-making positions”. These statements reveal a vision of Islamist influence rooted in the brotherist strategy of gaining access to power through the infiltration of institutions.

Academic and professional background: Amar Lasfar was born in 1960 in Nador, Morocco. A businessman who founded a travel agency, he is married with six children.

Previous role

Former president of Musulmans de France (2013–2021, formerly known as UOIF)

Institutional foundations

Lasfar is one of the founders of the Lycée Averroès, a school he has historically led. He has been involved in the leadership circles of the UOIF (Union of Islamic Organisations of France) since its creation in the early 1980s, rising to become the organisation’s president from 2013 to 2021.

Stated position on the Muslim Brotherhood

In April 2017, Lasfar stated: “We are not part of the Muslim Brotherhood. However, we are part of their school of thought. ” This statement encapsulates his ambivalent relationship with the movement’s parent organisation brotherist.

Controversial statements and allegations

Lasfar has delivered several public speeches reflecting a radical ideology. In 1994, he delivered an anti-Semitic speech arguing that “the Jews have subjugated the West and the laws of the West, the wealth of the West, in the service of a cause that is existential for them” (verified video). In the same year, he outlined a strategy of “infiltrating political power” to Islamise and subjugate the West. Subsequently, he submitted a fatwa to the French courts in the Bergham case, rejecting French judicial jurisdiction over apostasy – a theological position claiming religious authority superior to the rule of law.

Preaching and surveillance activities

Lasfar invited preachers calling for jihad to gatherings organised in northern France in 2011 and 2013. A controversial selfie with Home Secretary Bernard Cazeneuve in 2015 drew criticism from the National Front. Following revelations about Qatari funding of the Lycée Averroès – estimated at around €3 million – the Ministry of National Education launched in-depth educational and financial inspections.

Additional sources documenting the close ties brotherist

Mohamed Louizi, in his article “La caverne d’Amar Lasfar” published on the blog Écrire sans censures on 31 December 2015, testifies to having “pledged his second allegiance to the Muslim Brotherhood in the presence of Lasfar during a ceremony in a pavilion in Villeneuve-d’Ascq”. Louizi claims to know “the other Amar Lasfar, the one of the shadows and the dark underworld of Islamism”. He also describes Lasfar as the long-standing director of the Northern Islamic League, a network of mosques whose leaders form an informal brotherhood, according to his observations.

Academic and professional profile: Myriam Berkane is president of the IESH (European Institute of Human Sciences), based in Saint-Denis, Paris. This institution is part of the international network brotherist, being affiliated with the FIOE (Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe, now the European Council of Muslims – CEM) and its predecessor organisation, the UOIF (Union of Islamic Organisations of France). The president of the IESH has no publicly documented academic biography. There is no profile on the IESH website, no interview in which she discusses her career, and no accessible academic record.

Current role

President of the IESH in Paris

Current role

President of the IESH in Paris (Saint-Denis). Her public presence is mainly through speaking on behalf of the institution, particularly in Islamic media or at events brotherist such as the RAMF.

The report by the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) classifies her as part of a ‘third generation’ of women in the network brotherist: less overtly religious than their predecessors, having completed higher education, having gone through the activist community circuit, and adopting a superficially republican discourse.

Academic and professional profile: Larabi El Becheri was born in 1960. He holds a PhD in Sharia (Islamic religious law), a Sharia degree from the University of Medina and a degree from the Sorbonne in Paris. He served as a professor of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) at the IESH in Château-Chinon for 20 years, a role in which he also held the position of academic director.

Current position

Islamic theologian and Dean of the IESH in Château-Chinon

Positions within the brotherist international network

El Becheri is a member of the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR), a body established in 1997 by the FIOE (Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe, now the European Council of Muslims - CEM), based in Dublin and chaired until his death in 2022 by Youssef al-Qaradawi, a recognised spiritual leader of Muslim Brotherhood. He is also a member of the IUMS (International Union of Muslim Scholars), an organisation with over 95,000 members headquartered in Qatar and Dublin.

Role during the administrative investigation

In his capacity as dean, El Becheri oversaw the IESH during the search conducted by the OCRGDF in December 2024, an investigation into undeclared Qatari funding. He told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the allegations were “baseless” and claimed that “since the 2021 law, no foreign donations have been received”, a claim contradicted by administrative documents. He publicly denounced the dissolution as “political manipulation” and an “administrative bulldozer” with no real legal basis.

Academic and professional profile: Born in 1949 in La Rochelle, Olivier Roy holds the agrégation in philosophy. He is currently a professor at the European University Institute in Florence. He previously served as a research director at the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) and as a lecturer at the EHESS (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences) and Sciences Po Paris.

Diplomatic career and geopolitical expertise

Roy served as a consultant at the Quai d’Orsay between 1984 and 2008. He took part in several UN missions, notably in Afghanistan in 1988 as a consultant to the UN (United Nations). He led the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) mission in Tajikistan from 1993 to 1994, a period covering the critical phases of the Tajik civil war.

Major thesis and academic debate

In 2015, Roy developed a seminal thesis entitled ‘The Islamisation of Radicalism’. This analysis argues that young Western jihadists adopt Islam primarily as a vehicle for pre-existing generational rebellion and nihilism, rather than as a mature theological commitment based on doctrinal study. This proposition stands in direct opposition to that of Gilles Kepel.

Major academic controversy with Gilles Kepel

Kepel, a rival specialist on Islamist issues, accuses Roy of “speaking neither Arabic nor examining the Salafist doctrine behind jihadism”, criticising the lack of religious depth in his analysis. Kepel defends the opposite thesis: the “radicalisation of Islam”, a process whereby the intensive study of Islamic texts leads to extremism. These two analytical frameworks have had direct political consequences: Roy’s thesis influenced the Hollande government’s official narrative, whilst Kepel’s guided Macron’s strategy on Islamist infiltration and separatism.

Critical stance towards Macron’s policies

Roy described the separatism policy launched in 2020 as a “paradox: defending secularism with a plan based on state intervention in religion”. This criticism highlights the tension between the principles of non-intervention in the religious sphere and the active surveillance of Muslim organisations.

Main works

The Failure of Political Islam (1994), Globalised Islam (2004), Jihad and Death (2017).

Academic and professional profile: François Burgat is an Islamic studies scholar and political scientist. He speaks Arabic fluently. He is currently Director of the Arab Centre for Research and Political Studies (CAREP) in Paris. He holds the title of Emeritus Research Director at the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research).

Career in Arab and Muslim institutions

Burgat has headed the CEDEJ (Centre for Economic, Legal and Social Studies and Documentation) in Cairo, the IREMAM (Institute for Research and Studies on the Arab and Muslim Worlds) in Aix-en-Provence, and the CEFAS (French Centre for Archaeology and Social Sciences) in Sana’a, Yemen, positions which gave him access to regional institutional networks.

Political and intellectual stance

Burgat defends political Islam as a rational response to the colonial legacy. From his perspective, Islamism is not an exotic ideology but a practical struggle to reclaim power and dignity beyond colonialism. This framing rejects the pathologisation of Islamist activism, situating it within the ordinary course of political history.

CAREP funding and links to Qatar

CAREP, an organisation headed by Burgat, is funded by Qatar and operates as the French-speaking branch of the ACRPS (Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies), a parent institution based in Doha and headed by Azmi Bishara, a leading figure in Qatari networks. According to Global Watch Analysis, CAREP functions as a “political lobbying showcase” serving Qatari interests and the brotherist movement.

Allegations of ties to brotherist

Mohamed Louizi describes him as “a fellow traveller of the Brotherhood, or even a Brother himself”. Florence Bergeaud-Blackler cites him as an illustration of the permeability between academic circles, Qatar and Islamism in her book Le brotherism et ses réseaux (2023). In a detailed article, Louizi (“François Burgat’s Milestones on the Road to the Brothers”, Écrire sans censures blog) documents two decades of closeness to the Qatari authorities and brotherist, describing Burgat’s rhetorical effort to “exonerate the Brothers of any totalitarian and freedom-destroying Salafist sectarianism”. Burgat was in Qatar on 23 and 24 February 2010 for a meeting of the Islamist International brotherist organised around the theme “Islamist movements... choices and policies”, a meeting coordinated by the research centre of the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera.

Legal incident

Burgat was detained on 9 July 2024 in Aix-en-Provence for “glorifying terrorism” following publications relating to the Gaza conflict; his detention was based on a complaint filed by the European Jewish Organisation. He was acquitted by the Criminal Court of Aix-en-Provence. He publicly rejects the label “Islamo-leftist” as an “electoral rather than scientific” category.

Academic and professional profile: Born in 1967, Raphaël Liogier is a sociologist and philosopher. He holds a PhD in social sciences from Aix-Marseille University. He is a lecturer at the IEP (Institut d'Études Politiques, better known as Sciences Po) in Aix-en-Provence and has headed the Observatoire du religieux, an applied research organisation.

Central thesis and key concept

In his book *The Myth of Islamisation* (2011), Liogier developed a thesis that largely contradicts alarmist assessments. He argues that the ‘Muslim demographic time bomb’ – a common narrative in French political debate – is a fantasy with no empirical basis. At the same time, he has developed the concept of ‘Islamo-paranoia’ to describe the collective psychological state of contemporary France, a phenomenon he analyses as ‘collective paranoia born of a narcissistic wound’ resulting from the loss of France’s geopolitical status.

Criticism of secularism as a political tool

Liogier denounces what he describes as the instrumentalisation of secularism, which he claims has become “a tool for targeting those considered enemies of our culture”. He explicitly opposes the ban on the veil in French higher education, a position that aligns his arguments with the demands of Muslims in France.

Parliamentary expertise and academic standing

Liogier was one of the first experts to be heard by the French Parliament following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January 2015, a testimony that conferred upon him leading academic legitimacy in the public debate. He rejects the label ‘Islamo-leftist’ as politically charged terminology used to describe anyone who ‘affirms the existence of Islamophobia in France’.

Analysis of his role with Muslims of France

Mohamed Louizi names him specifically in the article “Pierre, Christophe, Vincent and Raphaël: four friends of the Muslim Brotherhood ” (Écrire sans censures blog, 30 March 2018) as one of the intellectuals invited to the RAMF, whose presence is intended to lend legitimacy to the event. Caroline Fourest notes that Liogier “attends almost every year” the UOIF’s annual congresses and “defends them in all his books” (blog, 15 May 2016: “The blatant bad faith of Raphaël Liogier”), although he has no documented organisational affiliation. His intellectual output systematically serves to support the narrative brotherist.

Academic and professional profile: Olivier Esteves has been a professor at the University of Lille since 2016. He is affiliated with CERAPS (Centre for Administrative, Political and Social Studies and Research), a political science research unit.

Major survey and empirical data

Esteves is co-author, with Alice Picard and Julien Talpin, of the book *La France, tu l’aimes mais tu la quittes* (2024), published in English under the corresponding title by Polity Press in 2025. This study combines quantitative and qualitative methodology: it is based on a quantitative survey of 1,074 Muslims who have emigrated from France, supplemented by 140 in-depth interviews. The study constitutes one of the first systematic accounts of French Muslim emigration.

Survey results and factor analysis

The survey reveals that over 67% of respondents cited freedom of religious practice as a factor motivating emigration, whilst 70% cited racism and discrimination as structural problems in France. The majority of respondents are highly qualified professionals, constituting a ‘brain drain’ in academic terms. Factors contributing to this migration include moral panics surrounding French secularism, discrimination in access to employment, and media and political discourse hostile towards Muslims.

Policy implications

A group of academics has spoken out against its methodology: “Being adorned with academic titles seems to give one the right to impose one’s worldview, even if it means constructing an alternative reality in the name of a radically misguided sociology. The book La France, tu l'aimes, mais tu la quittes. Enquête sur la diaspora française musulmane by Olivier Esteves, Alice Picard and Julien Talpin (Seuil, 2024) embodies this strictly ideological approach aimed at fuelling a martyrdom narrative of Islam that Islamist agitators relish.

This empirical data directly feeds into the narrative of Musulmans de France regarding systemic Islamophobia and French intolerance towards Muslim religious practice, even without any declared institutional affiliation with MF.

Academic and professional profile: Born in 1950 in Morocco, Bernard Godard has built a career in intelligence and government consultancy. He served as an officer with the French General Intelligence Service (Renseignements généraux) from 1985 to 1997, then as an expert on Islam at the Ministry of the Interior from 1997 to 2014; he ensured the continuity of the BCC for thirty years, and was known at the time as ‘Monsieur Islam’. Libération describes him as “the memory of Islam in France”.

Role in the creation of the CFCM

Godard played a key role in the creation of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) from 2002 onwards, an administrative process through which the French state institutionalised its relations with Muslim organisations. His role was to establish a framework for acceptable Muslim representatives, including the Muslim Brotherhood, which involved integrating the UOIF as a key partner-a decision that consolidated the institutional influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in the governance of Muslim affairs in France.

Publications and expertise

Godard is the author of La Question musulmane en France (Fayard, 2015) and co-author of Les musulmans en France (2007, with Sylvie Taussig). These works summarise his decade-long experience in the administrative management of Islamic organisations.

Personal description of the brotherist strategy

Godard himself has documented the strategy of the Muslim Brotherhood, stating: “The Muslim Brotherhood in general, and the UOIF in particular, are developing a strategy to take control of institutions in order to gain access to power, which takes precedence over everything else, with the emphasis placed less on solving problems than on placing their own people in key positions. ” This description, given by a former senior intelligence official, confirms that the brotherist entryist strategy was known and documented within the French administrative apparatus. He is the link between the BCC and UOIF-affiliated researchers such as V. Geisser, F. Burgat and F. Frégosi.

The Tariq Ramadan affair and institutional silence

In 2017, during an interview published by L'Obs, Godard admitted to having been aware of the “violent and aggressive” sexual behaviour attributed to Tariq Ramadan without having reported it to the relevant authorities. Ramadan has since been convicted of rape by the Swiss authorities (September 2024) and by the French authorities (March 2026) and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Position on foreign imams

Godard believes that the ban on foreign imams, a policy implemented by several French governments, remains ineffective. He advocates for regulatory oversight rather than a blanket ban, a position that serves the interests of UOIF organisations, which promote a “French Islam” under their control.

Academic and professional profile: Florence Ninitte holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Romance Studies from the Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain), as well as a PhD obtained in December 2016 in the field of medieval French and Arabic languages and literature, also from UCLouvain.

PhD research on textual transmission

Her doctoral research focused on the transmission of Arabic texts in the medieval West, examining in particular the figure of Arnoul de Quincampoix, an astrologer, physician and translator active at the French court in the fourteenth century.

EuQu project and research funding

Ninitte is a postdoctoral researcher on the EuQu (European Qur'an) project, a research programme funded to the tune of €10 million by a Synergy Grant from the European Research Council (ERC, European Research Council) covering the period 2019–2025, whose thesis is supported by researchers associated with the brotherist movement.

Political stance and affiliation

Ninitte has not publicly identified her political stance. She is an example of an academic researcher specialising in cultural history and intellectual transfer with no apparent involvement in contemporary political circles.

Academic and professional profile: Yvonne Bercher is a Swiss lawyer with a PhD in law. She teaches at the Institute of Management and Business Studies in Lausanne.

Critical academic contribution

Bercher is the author of ‘À quand le brotherism par dol éventuel ?’, a critical review published in Les Cahiers de l’Islam in October 2023. This article is a critique of the book Le brotherism et ses réseaux by Florence Bergeaud-Blackler (2023), a seminal work analysing the pervasiveness of brotherist influence in France.

Position in the academic debate

Bercher questions the methodology and empirical foundations of the concept of “brotherism” as conceptualised by Bergeaud-Blackler, aligning herself with an academic current critical of this explanatory thesis. Invited to speak on the panel immediately after the opening of RAMF2026, she was unable to present her argument due to a power cut that affected only her panel.

Academic and professional profile: Nader Abou Anas is of Egyptian origin and was born around 1987. He is based in Bobigny in the Paris region. He works as an imam and preacher, and is the founder and president of the Institut D'Clic, established in 2010. He teaches Arabic and Islamic studies in the Paris region.

Theological training and influences

Abou Anas undertook six years of intensive theological training under Yves Leseur, known by the religious pseudonym ‘Sheikh Ayoub’. Leseur is a French convert trained in Pakistan and an influential and revered figure in contemporary French Salafism.

Controversial statements on the status of women

In video sermons, Abou Anas justified marital rape by claiming that a wife who refuses her husband sexually “will be cursed by the angels all night long”. These statements form part of a theological framework that relegates women to a position of absolute submission. He later retracted his comments in the face of public criticism.

Surveillance by the intelligence services

Abu Anas is one of eight Muslim preachers under close surveillance by the French intelligence services due to his influence and ideology.

Digital presence and influence

Abou Anas has a substantial online following: 248,000 YouTube subscribers with over 10 million views, 187,000 Facebook followers, and an active presence on TikTok. This reach places him among the most influential online preachers in France.

Public controversies

In 2019, the prefectural authorities in Échirolles attempted to ban one of his public lectures. A controversy unfolded in Grenoble in 2023. His ideology is described by observers as a conservative Salafist movement of the ‘made in France’ variety, combining Salafist rigour with an adaptation to the French context.

Functional cooperation with brotherist networks

Although theologically distinct from the brotherist movement – his direct background stemming from the Salafist tradition - Abou Anas appears as a regular guest at events organised by the UOIF/MF, which attests to functional cooperation between the brotherist movement and the Salafist sphere despite doctrinal differences.

Academic and professional profile: Othmane Iquioussen has been the imam of the Assalam Mosque in Raismes, in the Nord department, since 2012. He is a graduate of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, a leading centre of traditional Sunni learning. He is often described as one of the youngest imams practising in France.

Family background within the networks brotheristin the north

Othmane is the son of Hassan Iquioussen, a historic figure in the UOIF network in northern France. Hassan Iquioussen was deported from France on 13 January 2023, first to Belgium and then to Morocco, on the grounds of his “virulent anti-Semitic rhetoric” and his calls for the “submission” of women, according to the official description. The Council of State had upheld the deportation in August 2022; Hassan had previously fled to Belgium following the issuance of an arrest warrant on 30 August 2022.

Family ties to another RAMF 2026 figure

Hassan Iquioussen is the brother-in-law of Tareq Oubrou, another key figure in RAMF 2026. Oubrou is married to Khadija, Hassan’s sister, a family connection that strengthens family ties within the network.

Administrative report for extremism

In September 2023, the Prefect of the Nord department reported Othmane Iquioussen to the public prosecutor in Valenciennes. A sermon delivered on 19 August 2020, lasting 30 minutes, was characterised by the authorities as motivated by “conspiracy theories” and as constituting “propaganda bordering on sectarian extremism and unequivocally containing calls for separatism, martyrdom and jihad”. These formulations indicate that the French authorities have identified a militant proselytising dimension in his discourse.

Specific charges

Othmane Iquioussen is accused of supporting Hamas, an organisation classified as terrorist by the European Union (EU). He is also documented as legitimising discrimination against women and equating homosexuality with “a form of moral perversion”. The religious association running the Assalam mosque “regularly disseminates views hostile to Western values and republican laws”, according to the prefectural observations.

RAMF participation schedule

Othmane Iquioussen has been invited to the RAMO (Rassemblement de Musulmans du Ouest), an event organised in Nantes in May 2025, confirming his involvement in the circuit of brotherist events.

Personal and academic profile

Tariq Oubrou was born on 31 October 1959 in Taroudant, Morocco. He acquired French nationality in 1991. He describes himself as a theologian and works as an imam in Bordeaux.

Institutional background

Oubrou is a former member of the UISEF (now known as Etudiants Musulmans de France) and founder of the AMG (Association des Musulmans de Gironde), an association affiliated with the UOIF (Union des Organisations Islamiques de France), which places him directly within the network of French organisations brotherist.

Family ties and alliances

He is married to Khadija Iquioussen, sister of Hassan Iquioussen, thereby linking the networks of the North with those of the South-West. This marriage strengthens the ties between key figures in the French network brotherist.

Progressive public stance

Unlike the majority of his peers in the brotherist network, Oubrou positions himself as an ‘imam of the Republic’. He advocates a liberal Islam deemed compatible with French secularism and defends a “discreet visibility” of Muslim religious practice in the public sphere. On the issue of the female veil, he states: “I cannot find any text obliging women to cover their hair”, a position that removes the practice of the veil from any theological obligation, which sets him apart radically from many Islamic scholars.

Republican educational contribution

Oubrou supports the teaching of religion in French school curricula as a strategy to immunise against extremism, a position that is in line with the republican principles of secular neutrality.

Terrorist threat and security

In May 2016, Islamic State (IS) issued a fatwa ordering the assassination of Oubrou, a document including his home address and photograph, circulated via the magazine Dar al-Islam. Oubrou refused the police protection offered by the authorities.

Documented ambivalence and tensions

Oubrou initially supported his brother-in-law Hassan Iquioussen during the administrative deportation proceedings in 2022, but later publicly distanced himself from him in an interview with the CNews channel. He stated: “The preacher in question is neither my style nor my doctrine”, a statement creating a rhetorical separation from his brother-in-law’s overt radicalism.

Intellectual works

Oubrou is the author of *What Place for Islam in the Republic?* and *Sharia for Minorities*, works offering a theorisation of Islam compatible with Western secular regimes.

Critical analyses of his double discourse

Mohamed Louizi has devoted two articles to him, documenting the contrast between his moderate public persona and his internal fundamentalist positions. In “Tareq Oubrou, the Escobar of Islamism” (14 July 2019) and “Tareq Oubrou, a dove brooding over vultures? " (3 December 2020), published on the blog Écrire sans censures, Louizi denounces what he interprets as double-speak. Louizi also notes that in 2017, Oubrou co-founded the Forum de Paris de la pensée critique association with Fouad Alaoui (a leading figure in the UOIF). His profile illustrates the tension between brotherist historical roots and a reformist repositioning adapted to contemporary republican expectations.

Historical roots brotherist and an open embrace of the Islamic political project

Oubrou himself has publicly acknowledged his early days as an avid reader of Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and his adherence in the 1980s to a radical conception of Islam advocating the restoration of the caliphate (dawla islamiya). In several interviews, he coined the now-iconic phrase: “if it hadn’t been for the UOIF, I would have become a Taliban”, quoted notably by Le Monde (“Tareq Oubrou, from Salafism to civic Islam”, 29 October 2015) and in his standard biographical entry. Audiovisual archives of the UOIF’s youth gatherings (JMF) from the 1990s and 2000s, rebroadcast and analysed by Mohamed Louizi in “Tareq Oubrou, the Escobar of Islamism ” (Écrire sans censures !, 14 July 2019, mlouizi.unblog.fr) and “Tareq Oubrou, a dove brooding over vultures? ” (3 December 2020), show him explicitly defending the project of an Islamic state and the doctrine brotherist of tamkîn (gradual establishment in non-Muslim lands). Louizi also documents the enduring nature of his organic links with the UOIF/Musulmans de France beyond his announced split in 2018 – notably the co-founding in 2017, with Fouad Alaoui, of the Paris Forum for Critical Thought. Florence Bergeaud-Blackler (Le brotherism et ses réseaux, Odile Jacob, 2023) and the government report “Les Muslim Brotherhood et l'islamisme politique en France” (Ministry of the Interior, May 2025) situate Oubrou within the Francophone brotherist network, highlighting the disconnect between his public discourse on reform and the continuity of his doctrinal and institutional roots.

Academic and professional profile: *(unidentified)*

Academic and religious profile

Zakaria Seddiki is an Islamic scholar who memorised the Qur’an at the age of 9. He holds a degree from Al-Azhar University in Cairo, a Master’s (MA) in usul al-fiqh (principles of Islamic jurisprudence) and a PhD from Paris-IV La Sorbonne University on the subject of martyrdom in Islam. He previously served as dean of a faculty of Quranic studies.

Academic positions

Seddiki currently holds the post of professor of Islamic jurisprudence at the IESH (European Institute of Human Sciences). He is the founder and director of the Muslim Institute for Distance Learning. He also heads La Maison des Savoirs. He is a member of the scientific council of the IIDR (International Institute of Law and Research).

Expertise in Islamic finance

Seddiki chairs an audit body specialising in compliance with Islamic finance, a rapidly growing field in Europe.

Major scholarly output

Seddiki oversaw the publication and complete French translation of the Qur’an and Ibn Kathir’s Tafsir, one of the major Qur’anic commentaries in the Muslim tradition.

Institutional career path brotherist

His career follows the typical pattern of the European brotherist network’s training pathway: advanced studies at Al-Azhar in Egypt (10 years), a move to the IESH in France (an institution founded by the UOIF and affiliated with the FIOE), followed by integration into the scholarly bodies of the international network.

Academic and professional profile: *(unidentified)*

Professional and academic profile

Walid Abdelmaksoud combines an elite scientific education with an Islamic theological education. He holds a degree from the École Centrale de Paris (a prestigious engineering school). He obtained his PhD in physics in 2010. He holds a degree in Islamic theology from the IESH (European Institute of Human Sciences) in Paris. He holds an Ijaza (traditional authorisation to teach) from Al-Azhar, an institution that awards internationally recognised theological qualifications.

Institutional background

Since 2015, Abdelmaksoud has been president of FICRA (International Forum for Citizenship and Reconciliation) Synergie Musulmane, an association based at 13 avenue de la Porte de Vincennes, Paris 20th.

Products and activities

FICRA produces educational and spiritual content aimed at French Muslims, notably the ObjectifRamadan app, which helps users track their fasting and religious practices during the month of Ramadan, as well as a series of video productions entitled ‘In the Light of the Quran’. The organisation holds annual seminars scheduled during the month of Ramadan, a season of heightened Muslim religious observance. FICRA operates within the brotherist ecosystem (presence on Darifton, training within the Islamist network of associations) without being a direct offshoot of MF. The association focuses more on the niche of Islamic personal development and intra-network training than on institutional activism.

Atypical profile

Abdelmaksoud represents a composite profile characteristic of the brotherist network: elite scientific and technical skills acquired at prestigious French institutions, alongside in-depth theological training obtained through the structures of the Islamist network. This combination creates what analysts refer to as a ‘bilingual’ executive capable of navigating between French academic and scientific circles and Islamic theological circles.

Academic and professional profile: Najette El Mouadhane works as a teacher of spiritual education and life and earth sciences (SVT), a scientific subject taught in French secondary schools.

Intellectual output

She is the author of two books: Living with His Sublime Names and Invoking Him by His Sublime Names (99 invocations). These publications blend Islamic spiritual reflection with contemporary pedagogy. She has published a third book entitled Replace Your Fears with Courage, which explores how to overcome fears by drawing on the teachings of the Qur’an and the Sunnah.

Spiritual training programme

El Mouadhane leads a training programme entitled ‘Les Trésors du Savoir’ (The Treasures of Knowledge), organised by the Ennour association based in Gennevilliers. The programme consists of cycles of independent modules, each lasting five weeks, aimed at women aged 18 and over. The modules cover the fundamentals of the Islamic faith, with a particular focus on the study of the Names of Allah (theological attributes of the divine in Islam). Classes are held on Saturday evenings from 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm, a schedule that accommodates working people. The stated aim is “a thorough understanding of the fundamentals to reform one’s heart and daily actions”, language that blends personal spiritual aspiration with ethical transformation.

Institutional registration

His educational work forms part of a non-university spiritual training network supported by grassroots Islamic associations.

Academic and professional profile: Omar Merzoug is a philosopher and journalist. He holds a PhD from the University of Paris IV La Sorbonne in the history of philosophy, specialising in a comparative study of the thought of Aristotle and Ibn Rushd (Averroes), the 12th-century Andalusian Muslim philosopher.

Academic background and teaching

Merzoug taught philosophy and Islamic civilisation for seven years at the Al-Ghazâlî Institute, a religious training institute affiliated with the Grand Mosque of Paris.

Intellectual output

Merzoug is the author of *Is There an Islamic Philosophy?* (published in *Cahiers de l'Islam*, 2018) and *Avicenna or the Islam of the Enlightenment* (Flammarion, 2021). His work focuses on Mu’tazilite thought – a rationalist theological school of classical Islam – and on the traditions of Islamic rationalism, approaches that emphasise reason and the harmony between reason and revelation.

Institutional controversy and arbitrary dismissal

In November 2016, the management of the Al-Ghazâlî Institute carried out a mass dismissal: fourteen lecturers had their contracts terminated without notice, including Merzoug. The dismissals coincided with the arrival of imams seconded by the Algerian government to oversee teaching. The student body reacted to this purge with strikes and a protest petition dated 12 November. The group of teachers who were dismissed subsequently brought legal proceedings against the Grand Mosque of Paris.

Academic and professional profile: Sofiane Meziani holds a degree in philosophy from the University of Reims. He works as a teacher of modern literature in secondary education in Lille. He also teaches Muslim ethics at the Lycée Averroès, a school founded by Amar Lasfar.

Organisational affiliation

Meziani is a member of the CMF (Collectif des Musulmans de France), a network that defines itself as promoting a “respectful, autonomous Islam that is open to society”. Historically, the CMF (which predates the formation of Musulmans de France) participated in anti-globalisation protests (movements such as the Larzac movement and the European Social Forums) and, in 1995, established a national voter registration committee aimed at increasing civic participation among young French Muslims.

Intellectual contributions and stance

Meziani is a prolific contributor to Oumma.com, a platform for Muslim content. He has served as a speaker for Havre de Savoir, a platform identified by observers as structurally linked to brotherist networks. He is known to have publicly praised Hassan Al-Banna, the historic founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and to have celebrated the electoral victory of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 2012.

Controversial statements

In 2016, Meziani published an article on the Saphirnews platform entitled “An End to French Democracy”, written in explicitly critical terms towards the French democratic system. In 2015, in an interview with L'Obs, he claimed that “Charlie Hebdo cultivates the abject” and “contributes to the trivialisation of racist acts”, a stance characterised by a radical critique of the French satirical newspaper.

Publications

Meziani is the author of *Le Souffle de l'Esprit* (Albouraq, 2020) and *La Guérison de l'âme*, works combining Islamic spirituality and psychological self-help. He has published *Le Souffle de l'Esprit* (Albouraq, 2020) and *La 'Umra, guide spirituel de l'éternel pèlerin* (Albouraq, 2021). Al Bayyinah These are joined by *The Challenge of Meaning* (Albouraq), A Short Manifesto Against Democracy (Les Points sur les i), From Man to God (with Bouzelmate), and Man Facing the Death of God (Les Points sur les i) and “A Short Manifesto Against Democracy”.

Wide-ranging involvement in the ecosystem brotherist

Meziani’s profile illustrates a multifaceted and functional presence within the structures of the French brotherist movement: involvement in the education sector (Lycée Averroès), contributions to the media brotherist (Oumma.com, Havre de Savoir), the intellectual articulation of critical positions towards the French secular Republic, and commitment to the guiding figure of Hassan Al-Banna. This multi-faceted involvement consolidates his position as an intellectual organically linked to the network.

Academic and professional profile: Lecturer and researcher in Islamic studies at GIBTU (Gaziantep Islamic University of Science and Technology) in Turkey, in partnership with Al-Sharq Forum, a Turkish NGO close to Muslim Brotherhood. Yanis Mahil holds a PhD in Islamic Studies and is the author of *Collective Ijtihad: The Evolution of Muslim Law* (Albouraq Publishing, 2024), with a foreword by Prof. Bernard K. Freamon, professor of law and Islamic studies at New York University. The book analyses the emergence of new actors – notably lay experts such as doctors or economists – integrated into the process of law-making, constituting a radical shift in traditional authority.

His scholarly work focuses on contemporary Islamic law and hermeneutics, with a particular interest in the disruption of the monopoly of authority in matters of ijtihad by non-specialist experts. His related research covers African-American studies, decolonial and racial studies, as well as geopolitics. An official document of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe explicitly mentions him as a speaker on behalf of the Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations (FEMYSO). In Le Point, drawing on Haoues Seniguer’s book, Yanis Mahil is described as a ‘rising star’ of FEMYSO.

Academic and professional profile: A spiritual guide and strategic management consultant trained at EM Lyon (Lyon Business School), Fethallah Othmani founded the ‘Autour du Coran’ institute. He holds a Doctorate in Business Administration (EDBA – Executive Doctorate in Business Administration, 2023) specialising in Muslim spiritual leadership. At RAMF 2026, he will give a lecture on “Prophetic Leadership” and take part in the debate “Crisis of vocations ".

From a very young age, Othmani was an active member of the Union of Young Muslims in Lyon, and later of the Collective of Muslims in France. He became involved at an early stage in the Présence Musulmane collective, alongside Tariq Ramadan and numerous activists from various French-speaking countries.

Fethallah Othmani combines a technical background – accounting, finance, educational sciences, management – with a religious foundation acquired from scholars trained in Medina and Al-Azhar. After starting out in accounting, he turned to international entrepreneurship. He was recruited as managing director and later president of the AVS (Association for Awareness, Verification and Action for the Respect of Ritual Slaughter), the European leader in halal certification, for which he became spokesperson. As an expert, he has been commissioned by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and by various councils of scholars, notably the CEFR (European Council for Fatwa and Research) and the International Council of Muslim Scholars.

Since 2019, he has headed MED'IN Formation, a training and strategic management consultancy, as well as MED'IN Academy. Together with Mostafa Brahami, he co-authored the book *Le marché du Halal* (Tawhid Publishing). He is the founder and director of “Rencontres autour du Coran” (Lyon), a programme of Quranic study that has become a benchmark. A founding member of the French Union of Muslim Consumers, Îlot des Combes and Aux Sources, he regularly leads Friday prayers in mosques and in prisons. He was a guest on the Muslim Makers podcast (episode 105). A contributor to Oumma.com and Rawda.tv, his contributions reflect his affinity with the brotherist movement.

Academic and professional profile: Abdelhamid Youyou, a university professor specialising in Islamic thought, is affiliated with the ISLAMICA Institute and the Grand Mosque of Strasbourg. At RAMF 2026, he is leading a masterclass entitled ‘Muslim Thought, Reinterpretation and Renaissance’.

Little detailed biographical information is available despite his well-documented academic standing. He leads intellectual seminars on Islamic philosophy and doctrine. He regularly officiates at the major mosques of the UOIF network (Union of Islamic Organisations of France): the Grand Mosque of Strasbourg, the Grand Mosque of Lille and mosques in Brussels. He regularly participates in the RAMN (Annual Gathering of Muslims of Northern France) at the Grand Palais in Lille (2016 and 2017 editions), organised by the Northern UOIF network led by Amar Lasfar.

Academic and professional profile: Director of the Lastorlabe Foundation for Thought and Research, Abdelaziz Kabes is affiliated with CILE (Research Centre for Islamic Legislation and Ethics), based in Doha (Qatar) and affiliated with HBKU (Hamad Bin Khalifa University). At the RAMF 2026, he delivered a lecture entitled ‘The Islamic Value System and Qur’anic Meta-Ethics’. The use of the title *Ustadh* (master) in his Shatibi biography indicates his status as a recognised teacher in French-speaking Islamic circles

Religious education: IESH (degree in Islamic studies), ijazat in Quranic recitation

CILE is funded by Qatari institutions. Kabes’s work focuses on Islamic ontology, political jurisprudence (fiqh siyasi) and civilisational paradigms. His position as director of Lastorlabe, a co-organiser of the CILE summer schools in France, places him as a strategic intermediary between the Qatari network (CILE/HBKU) and the brotherist French network (IESH).

Academic and professional profile: Lyess Chacal holds a PhD in Arabic Culture and Civilisation from Paris IV Sorbonne and is a specialist in al-Ghazali. He is the author of *Illusion and Deception in Islam* (Oryms). His thesis, entitled “On Vanity (ġurūr) in al-Ghazali’s *Iḥyā’ ʿulūm al-dīn* (Revival of the Religious Sciences)”, supervised by Professor Abdallah Cheikh-Moussa (specialist in medieval Arabic literature at Sorbonne University), was published in September 2018 under the full title *Illusion and Deception in Islam: A Study of Human Vanities in Abū Ḥāmid al-Ġazālī’s (1058–1111) *Revivification of the Religious Sciences**. He is also the author of a translation of the *Book of Repentance* taken from Ghazali’s *Ihya*, an essay entitled *The Muslim Ideal According to Ghazali* and a comprehensive biography of the author.

Lyess Chacal regularly speaks at mosques and in French-speaking Muslim circles. He was invited to the “Mercredis du Savoir” at the Grand Mosque of Paris, notably for a film screening and discussion on Sheikh Al Ibrahimi alongside Thomas Sibille (24 September 2025). He also took part in a round table discussion entitled “Young People and Spirituality in the Digital Age” at the Grand Mosque of Paris. He is a contributor to Oumma.com. He is an author specialising in Islamic mysticism and ethics, whose presence on the RAMF is more a matter of thematic focus than of any identifiable militant commitment.

His work focuses on the purification of the heart, ethics and Islamic mysticism. No major controversies have been identified.

Academic and professional profile: Brahim Charafi is a university lecturer in constitutional law and holds a PhD in political history and Islamic thought. He is also a councillor in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray (Seine-Maritime) and a lecturer at the IESH in Paris (European Institute of Human Sciences, Saint-Denis), one of the flagship institutions of the FM network in France for the training of religious leaders and imams. He served as a volunteer Muslim chaplain at Rouen prison for around three years.

A specialist in takfirism, Brahim Charafi published “Takfir and Takfirism: Origins and Consequences” in the Journal Al-Manhal for Islamic Research and Studies (2024). He has also published on Quranists and the myth of the clash of civilisations. On Mizane.info (a website linked to Albouraq Publishing), he has written “The danger of the myth of the clash of civilisations” (arguing that civilisation is “unique, indivisible and inclusive”) and “Who are the Quranists?” (an introduction to Quranism).

A councillor in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray since 2020, and an independent candidate in the 2020 and 2026 municipal elections on the “Osons ensemble l’avenir” list, Charafi filed a complaint against Le Figaro in August 2020 for describing him as a “radical Islamist”. Valeurs actuelles and a blogger were found guilty of defamation for describing him as an “imam” (a fine of €5,000 each and €9,000 in damages). Le Figaro, however, was acquitted.

Academic and professional profile: Kadjoura Baradji is actively involved in the Muslim community; he was president of the EMF (Muslim Students of France) student association, the student wing of the UOIF/MF. He preaches as an imam during Friday prayers at the Omar Ibn Khattab Mosque in Paris, one of the city’s most well-attended mosques. This mosque, run by the association “Vivre l’Islam en Occident”, has a controversial history: investigators and observers describe it as a “major hub of radical Salafism”; it has been the subject of searches and press articles linking it to calls for jihad (the documentary “Silent Jihad”), to visits by Kobili Traoré (the murderer of Sarah Halimi) and to recruitment networks for jihad in Syria and Iraq.

Since June 2023, he has chaired La Fontaine aux Religions, an “interfaith association” committed to inter-community dialogue, working alongside Catholic priests and Buddhist leaders in schools.

He contributes regularly to Al Bayyinah (albayyinah.fr, a socially conscious publishing house based in Argenteuil): video interviews on adolescence (episodes 20, 21, 29), book recommendations (episode 10), and educational and parenting topics. He is the founder of the collective “Un Islam, des Musulmans ’ (2022), whose aim is to foster dialogue between the different strands of Islam, to consider the overarching and strategic interests of the Muslim community, and to make the Muslim presence ‘a vehicle for civilisation and social peace’.

Academic and professional profile: Author and director of Le Relais, a publishing house specialising in Islamic education, Khalil Temmar is a professor and coach in educational sciences and techniques. At RAMF 2026, he will deliver a lecture entitled ‘Transmitting the Faith in a Changing World’.

He is the author of numerous educational and spiritual works: Resolution of a Living Heart (individual reform as a condition for change), The Prophet Muhammad – The West Testifies, Questions and Answers on the Qur’an (several volumes), I Spoke to a Wise Man (33 edifying stories), The Six Qualities to Attain the Highest Level of Paradise, Ramadan: The 30-Day School. His publications focus on the purification of the soul, spiritual education and the study of the Quran. The Algerian press (Réflexion DZ) presents him as having “pioneered a genuine approach to educational management”, describing him as “a professor and coach in educational sciences and techniques, author of a reference work entitled Individual Reform”.

Khalil Temmar teaches regularly at the Massy Mosque (Essonne). There he gives weekly dars (lessons) and Friday sermons (Jumu’ah), covering topics such as meditations on Surah Al-Kahf, lessons from the Battle of Uhud, the story of Yusuf, Surah Al-Hujurat, and the Qur’an and dhikr. The Massy Mosque, inaugurated in 2019, is identified as being of brotherist orientation, its project having been coordinated by Mehdi Bensaadi (Massy Muslim Council), who is close to the UOIF/Muslims of France.

The Six Qualities are more indicative of the influence of Tabligh Jama'at – the “six qualities/points” constituting the fundamental doctrinal framework of this movement – than that of Muslim Brotherhood. Khalil Temmar could therefore be described as having a cross-cutting profile, straddling the Tablighi influence (spirituality, individual reform, itinerant preaching) and collaboration with FM networks (RAMF, Massy Mosque, publishing circles).

Academic and professional profile: Born in 1963 in Casablanca (Morocco) and arriving in France in 1985, Mohamed Najeh holds a PhD in Physical Sciences (Louis Pasteur University of Strasbourg, 1992). A mathematics teacher in the French state education system and in higher education, he served as chairman of the board of trustees of the Grand Mosque of Strasbourg for around ten years and as an imam-khatib in several mosques in Strasbourg for 12 years. At the RAMF 2026, he gave a lecture entitled ‘God loves you… even in times of trial’.

In 2012, Mohamed Najeh co-founded the Attabari Institute, a school of Islamic theology taught in French which has attracted around 500 students over the past ten years. He also served as a chaplain at Fleury-Mérogis prison for eighteen months. With over 37 years’ experience in preaching, he is co-founder and vice-president of the CTMF (Muslim Theological Council of France, established on 25 May 2015).

In 2016, he founded the Najah Online Institute, initially offering self-directed learning, then live online tuition via Zoom from 2020; the Institute has since attracted students from all over the world.

The CTMF is chaired by Ahmed Jaballah, former president of the UOIF (1984–1992, then 2011–2012), who was forced to leave France in March 2024 under an OQTF order and deportation proceedings. According to an article in Saphirnews, “while a large proportion of CTMF members are members of or close to the UOIF, each joins in their own right”, in the words of Mohamed Najeh himself. The CTMF is therefore widely identified as a theological offshoot of the FM movement.

He initiated the Cordoba Mobile University project, inviting scholars from the Arab world for several sessions on theological sciences focusing on Aqîda, the Sciences of the Qur’an and the Sciences of Hadith.

Since 2011, Mohamed Najeh has been khatib (chief preacher) at the Grand Mosque of Vigneux-sur-Seine (Essonne), where he has risen to the position of president of the Council of Elders. This mosque is a significant FM landmark: it hosted a “conclave of Muslim Brotherhood ’ in 2019, according to an article by Naëm Bestandji in Atlantico, bringing together fundamentalist preachers, including Abdallah Ben Mansour (former secretary-general of the UOIF, president of the FIOE – the Islamic Federation of Europe from 2014 to 2018). The theme: “the aims of Islam in the service of a balanced religiosity”. Resistance Républicaine described this meeting as an FM conclave aimed at managing “the Islam of France so dear to Macron”. The mosque features in the FM map on decolonialisme.fr.

As part of the major Waqf project for the Grand Mosque of Vigneux-sur-Seine, he contributed to the acquisition of the Excellence School Group in Corbeil-Essonnes and the Rhazès primary and secondary school.

The converging evidence is both numerous and substantial: vice-presidency of the CTMF alongside Ahmed Jaballah; imam at the Grand Mosque of Vigneux-sur-Seine (a documented site of an ‘FM conclave’); teaching at the Attabari Institute in Corbeil-Essonnes; training of over 500 theology students within a doctrinal framework compatible with FM ideology; attendance at the RAMF 2026. The fact that he himself admits that “a large proportion of CTMF members are members of or close to the UOIF” whilst maintaining a pretence of independence is revealing of the organisation’s institutional stance. The CTMF’s executive committee includes, alongside Ahmed Jaballah and Mohamed Najeh, Daoud Gril (University of Aix-Marseille), Ounis Guergah (CEFR-France), Larbi Kechat (Ad-Dawa Mosque, Paris), Tareq Oubrou (Bordeaux) and Mohamed Bajrafil (Ivry). [[Oumma]{.underline}](https://oumma.com/le-premier-jour-du-mois-de-ramadan-sera-le-mercredi-16-mai-2018-selon-le-ctmf/) The presence of Kechat, Oubrou and Bajrafil – well-known figures – confirms the CTMF’s organic positioning.

Academic and professional profile: Islamic lecturer Sicet Touré will speak at RAMF 2026, delivering a lecture entitled ‘The family at the heart of society’. Biographical information remains scarce in the publicly available sources.

Academic and professional profile: Dr Halim Hassoun, who holds a PhD in law and Islamic legal principles, is a specialist in Islamic finance. He was a professor at the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM, Kuala Lumpur), a major institution within the global Islamic network founded in 1983 with the support of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). IIUM is a major centre of contemporary Islamic thought, frequented by intellectuals from the international FM movement as well as various reformist currents. Ijâza (traditional Islamic authorisation to transmit and teach) granted by the Dean of the University of Damascus`

Dr Hassoun is the author of a practical guide to zakât, designed to help calculate the legal alms due on one’s assets, with concrete examples, from Islamic Law and Finance. His works are published by Maison d’Ennour, founded in 1984, a specialist Arab-Muslim publishing house and bookshop that collaborates with authors such as Hani Ramadan (director of the Islamic Centre of Geneva, grandson of Hassan al-Banna, a leading figure in the brotherist movement), Moncef Zenati (a regular preacher on the MF network) and Soufiane Meziani (former headteacher of the Averroès secondary school in Lille, founded by the UOIF). The Maison d'Ennour catalogue is a key feature of the French-speaking publishing ecosystem brotherist.

Academic and professional profile: Lahbib Laghmiri, a specialist in Arabic calligraphy, is leading a masterclass at RAMF 2026 entitled ‘The Manuscript of Ibn Al Bawwab’, dedicated to the famous 11th-century calligrapher. Public biographical information remains limited.

Academic and professional profile: Born in 1979 in Lyon, Gökmen Lokman Çitak is a researcher and educator, holding a PhD in Islamic Studies (2016) for a thesis on the adaptability of the fatwa in Europe. His thesis was defended at Jean Moulin University **Lyon 3**, in joint supervision with **Uludağ University in Bursa (Turkey).** It focuses specifically on the CEFR (European Council for Fatwa and Research), an institution founded by Qaradawi and central to the network brotherist****Director of the La Maison d’Arqam School Group (Vénissieux, founded in 2014, first pupils in 2015), he is the founder of the Tahawi Institute and author of *La Fatwa : histoire, perspectives et défis européens*.

Lokman Citak studied religious sciences for six years at the IMED (Muslim Institute for Distance Learning), founded by Sheikh Zakaria Seddiki. He trained under Seddiki, Sheikh Mohamed Hendaz and Sheikh Mohamed Rifi, leading figures in Islamic education in Lyon. The Tahawi Institute, which he founded, offers both face-to-face and distance learning in Islamic studies. He is involved in the CTIR (Theological Council of Imams of the Rhône) and sits on fatwa bodies in France and Europe. A regular imam at the Eyüp Sultan Mosque in Vénissieux, he plays a leading spiritual role there. This mosque is affiliated with Millî Görüş (CIMG) and is the second-largest mosque in the Lyon metropolitan area (4,800 m²). Millî Görüş is a Turkish Islamist movement founded by Necmettin Erbakan, representing 25 to 35% of Turkish places of worship in France, distinct from DITIB (linked to the Turkish Diyanet).

Lokman Citak is a member of the Scientific Council of the ISHN (Institut Supérieur des Humanités Numinales, formation-imam.fr), an institution for the training of imams. He is a regular speaker at the Centre Tawhid Lyon, a major Lyon-based organisation linked to Éditions Tawhid (an Islamic publisher founded in 1994 in Lyon, historically close to the Lyon-based FM/UOIF movement), with videos of his lectures available on Facebook. He also speaks at the IFCM (Institut Français de Civilisation Musulmane, Lyon), a municipal institution for intercultural dialogue, where he gave a lecture on “The Fatwa: History, Perspectives and European Challenges”. No major controversies have been identified in the available sources.

His profile illustrates the operational convergence between Turkish networks (Millî Görüş) and brotheristArab networks (MF/UOIF) within the Islamic landscape of Lyon, with multiple links: publications with Éditions Tawhid and Maison d’Ennour (FM orbit); lectures at the Centre Tawhid Lyon; training at IMED under Zakaria Seddiki; member of the ISHN’s scientific council; attendance at RAMF 2026.

Academic and professional profile: Noria Addou is Head of Teaching at the Al-Andalus Institute in Schiltigheim, in the Strasbourg metropolitan area. She is the wife of Messaoud Boumaza, founder and rector of the Institute, and a member of the Muslim Theological Council of France (CTMF). At RAMF 2026, she will speak in the debate on “The Crisis of Religious Authority”.

Her career is inextricably linked to that of her husband: in 1997–1998, the couple settled in Strasbourg after Messaoud Boumaza completed his studies in law and Islamic legal principles at the IESH in Château-Chinon (European Institute of Human Sciences, founded in 1990 on the initiative of the UOIF). Together, they launched spiritual circles and youth mentoring programmes at the Mosquée de la Gare, before formally founding the Institut Al-Andalous, which secured premises on Avenue Mendès France in Schiltigheim in January 2004.Noria Addou herself holds a degree in Islamic law and jurisprudence from the IESH in Château-Chinon, as well as a Master’s in Languages, Cultures and Society (Research track, specialising in Arabic) from the University of Strasbourg.

The Al-Andalous Institute is an extracurricular educational institution teaching Arabic, the Quran and Arab-Muslim culture, which at its peak had up to 1,300 pupils and 32 teachers, making it one of the largest centres for Islamic education in Alsace. In the summer of 2025, the Bas-Rhin prefecture ordered its administrative closure due to fire safety non-compliance (lack of fire doors, inadequate smoke extraction). The management denounced this as “stigmatisation” and contested the real motives behind the closure. The dismissal of the entire teaching staff followed, and reopening was not scheduled until 2026. Biographical discretion is a characteristic trait of female educational leaders within the brotherist ecosystem.

Her membership of the executive committee of the CTMF, a body whose members are predominantly drawn directly from the IESH/CEFR/UISM apparatus -the intellectual infrastructure of the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe-and her ongoing participation in the RAMF since at least 2008 make her a profile of an organic activist.

Academic and professional profile: Imam and rector of the Ar-Rahma Mosque (Nice), the largest mosque in Nice, Othmane Aïssaoui is president of the Union of Muslims of the Alpes-Maritimes and a departmental delegate affiliated with the former UOIF (Union of Islamic Organisations of France). He is also vice-president of the CRCM (Regional Council of the Muslim Faith). Associated with the Avicenne private Muslim school in Nice.

Following the attack in Nice on 14 July 2016, Aïssaoui called for “calm, restraint and social cohesion”, stating: “ Today I am a Christian” and warning against “the rise of hatred” and “generalisations”. In March 2026, he filed a defamation suit against Gilbert Collard (MP for the National Rally), CNews and the magazine Frontières, who accused him of having close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and of exerting political influence over the vote of Nice’s Muslim community. Aïssaoui categorically denies this.

Academic and professional profile: Of Mauritanian origin and having arrived in France in 1990, Mahmoud Doua has been the imam of the Cenon mosque (near Bordeaux) since 2004. A Doctor of Political Science (Bordeaux), he was for many years the right-hand man of Imam Tareq Oubrou. The Cenon Mosque is affiliated with the FMG (Federation of Muslims of the Gironde), an offshoot of the former UOIF. As a regional prison chaplain, Mahmoud Doua is speaking at RAMF 2026 on the talk show “Muslims in the Media”.

He teaches the anthropology of Islam at the University of Bordeaux and acts as a trainer for public sector stakeholders. Mahmoud Doua’s ex-wife is the niece of Hassan Iquioussen, and he has since remarried Tareq Oubrou’s sister. This biographical detail, absent from his profile, is strikingly revealing: his family ties to the brotherist network in Bordeaux and northern France are close.

According to testimonies from former members and critics, he was described as promoting an expansionist Islam, delivering sermons centred on Hassan Al-Banna and the Muslim Brotherhood, teaching that democracy and secularism are ‘Shaytan’ and that music is forbidden. He is also reported to have stated in 2011 on France 2 that ‘the persecution of Eastern Christians is disinformation’. He is associated with CAPRI (Centre for Action and Prevention against the Radicalisation of Individuals), which critics believe was directly created by the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Doua-Oubrou couple form the leadership duo of the brotherist movement in Bordeaux, according to Mohamed Louizi’s investigation into the FM chaplaincy

Involved in interfaith dialogue (this is the hallmark of the brotherists in Bordeaux, and of Tarq Oubrou in particular) he is the author of *God in Islam: A Spiritual and Anthropological Approach* (Éditions Nour) and a forthcoming book, *The Imam and the Rabbi*, an interview with Rabbi Yonathan Levy.

Academic and professional profile: A trained architect and French-Arabic translator, Rachid Laamarti is the imam at the Grand Mosque of Mons-en-Barœul (near Lille). A declared member of the UOIF, he serves as a regional prison chaplain. At RAMF 2026, he will speak in a flash talk entitled ‘Priorities of the Muslim community’.

Rachid Laamarti became politically active as a member of the “Nous Citoyens” party (2014) and as a candidate in the European elections. He took part in La Manif pour Tous (a movement opposing same-sex marriage, 2012–2016). He delivered a sermon on 20 April 2012 on “the issue of voting and electoral participation”. Associated with Action Citoyenne and the Islamic League of the North, he promotes victimisation narratives claiming that Muslims are persecuted and trapped by conspiracies orchestrated by the media and the state.

The Northern Islamic League is a network of mosques led by Amar Lasfar, whose leaders form “an informal brotherhood” according to Mohamed Louizi (La caverne d’Amar Lasfar, 2015). His involvement in multiple organisations (UOIF, local associations, chaplaincy) is characteristic of the territorial network brotherist in the North, as documented by Louizi in Pourquoi j’ai quitté les Muslim Brotherhood (Michalon, 2016).

Academic and professional profile: Feïza Ben Mohamed, born on 12 September 1985 in Marseille, is a Franco-Moroccan journalist of Rifian origin. She works as the France correspondent for the French desk of Anadolu Agency (the Turkish state news agency). At RAMF 2026, she appeared on two talk shows: ‘Muslims in the Media’ and ‘Entrism’.

Feïza Ben Mohamed holds a law degree obtained through distance learning, but no formal journalism training is identified in public sources. Her career path is that of a community activist who became a journalist and columnist, rather than that of a professional who graduated from a journalism school.

Before her career in the media, Feïza Ben Mohamed served as spokesperson and secretary-general of the Federation of Muslims of the South (FMS), established in July 2014 in the wake of the attacks on Gaza. In this capacity, she was involved in “the fight against Islamophobia and attacks on the freedoms of the Muslim community”, notably during the burkini controversy in the summer of 2016. The FMS does not formally appear in the organisational chart of the UOIF/Musulmans de France, but its creation in the wake of a mobilising event (Gaza 2014) and its areas of focus are part of the broader landscape of French Muslim associations.

She was an activist with the L.E.S. Musulmans platform and the CCIF.

Candidate in the 2017 general election.

She stood as an independent in the 5th constituency, with Smail Jebali as her deputy

In 2022, the CIPDR (Interministerial Committee for the Prevention of Delinquency and Radicalisation) launched a social media campaign against her following her coverage of the Iquioussen affair, resulting in intense cyberbullying for several weeks. She is listed by the domestic intelligence services as “pro-Erdoğan” due to her employment at Anadolu. In 2019, she was included on a far-right list of “Islamo-leftists”. She is under surveillance for her tweets supporting Mélenchon.

Feïza Ben Mohamed criticises state-sanctioned Islamophobia and police violence against Muslim communities. She identifies as a supporter of the radical left. Her position lies at the intersection of three spheres: anti-Islamophobia activism (CCIF legacy), Turkish media influence (Anadolu) and FM events (RAMF). She is a fellow traveller – not an organic activist, but a media voice whose causes regularly align with the interests of the FM network.

Academic and professional profile: A journalist and writer, Fouad Bahri is editor-in-chief of Mizane.info, a platform for “analysis, news and insight dedicated to Islam and the Muslim world”. He was deputy editor-in-chief of the Franco-Turkish weekly *Zaman France* [[Tlaxcala-int]{.underline}](http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/biographie.asp?lg_pp=fr&ref_aut=4673) – a newspaper close to the Gülen movement, which was shut down after 2016. This role preceded his work at Mizane.info. He is a contributor to *Cahiers de l'Islam* (an academic journal), Oumma.com and ISM France (International Solidarity Movement, a pro-Palestinian, pro-BDS platform). Based in Marseille, he is the author of *La relationnalité de l'islam, une métaphysique du lien*. At RAMF 2026, he will speak in the debate “Parole confisquée” and lead a masterclass entitled “Relationnalité de l'Islam”. He founded Mizane.tv in partnership with Albouraq Publishing [[Spotify for Creators]{.underline}](https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/mizanetv/episodes/Fouad-Bahri–ltonnement-divin-e2ban0t), a French-language Islamic publishing house whose publications are distributed through the network brotherist

Its editorial line engages in an intellectual exploration of Islamic theology and philosophy within the contemporary French context. ISM France is a platform of the pro-Palestinian international solidarity movement, campaigning for BDS. Bahri published an article there entitled “When Zionist organisations bet on Islam in France”, linking the Palestinian question with that of institutional Islam in France. Oumma.com is identified as close to the brotherist movement.

However, Bahri’s editorial line (philosophy, theology) does not fall within the militant brotherist sphere. Fouad Bahri is not an FM executive and has no documented organic link with the structures of Musulmans de France, the IESH, the CEFR or the FEMYSO. His profile is that of an intellectual-journalist operating within an editorial and events ecosystem that overlaps with the FM sphere without being limited to it. Several indicators, however, place his work within a zone of structural collaboration: publication with Albouraq, contributions to Oumma.com, a favourable treatment of the RAMF on Mizane.info, and regular participation in MF events. His intellectual work – theosophy, the metaphysics of connection, Muslim reformism – provides an intellectual veneer and cultural legitimacy to an ecosystem whose organisational structures (MF) are documented as brotherists. This is precisely the type of profile that the FM strategy values: independent intellectuals who, without being affiliated, normalise and elevate the status of the network’s events and institutions.

Academic and professional profile: A lawyer specialising in civil liberties and religious freedom, Sefen Guez Guez represents Muslim organisations and institutions affected by French policies. At RAMF 2026, he will be speaking on the talk show “The Separatism Law”.

His notable cases include: (1) the Al Farouk Mosque (Pessac/Bordeaux), where he secured the annulment of the closure by the Council of State (April 2022), which ruled that the measure constituted a “serious and manifestly unlawful infringement of freedom of worship” – a landmark ruling; (2) representing MF (Musulmans de France) in proceedings to ban gatherings; (3) the defence of the Lycée Averroès before the administrative court; (4) cases concerning restrictions on Islamic dress, one of which resulted in France being condemned by a UN committee.

Guez Guez described the separatism law as a solution that contributes to “amplifying Islamophobia by suggesting that Muslims represent a danger and constitute a fifth column”. He asserts that “it is the success of the Muslim community in this country that is causing unease”. He was the lawyer for the CCIF (Collectif contre l'Islamophobie en France), an organisation dissolved by decree in December 2020 following the murder of Samuel Paty. The CCIF is identified by the intelligence services and by many analysts as an offshoot of the brotherist victimisation/judicialisation strategy – Mohamed Louizi describes it as the “judicial arm” of the Muslim Brotherhood in France. Guez Guez described the dissolution as “the clearest manifestation of state Islamophobia” and appealed to the Council of State to challenge it.

In April 2026, the Paris police prefect banned the RAMF 2026 rally. Guez Guez filed an application for interim relief before the Paris Administrative Court and secured the suspension of the ban on 3 April, describing the decision as a “victory for the rule of law” and denouncing the “political considerations” behind the ban. He also secured a legal victory for the Lycée Averroès before the Lille Administrative Court (23 April 2025), obtaining the annulment of the termination of the association contract. At the Beauvais mosque, which had been closed for “radical sermons”, he secured its reopening by court order in May 2022.

Other cases: the Avicenne private school in Nice operating outside the state contract system, an Islamic bookshop, the burkini dispute (Villeneuve-Loubet, 2016, on behalf of the CCIF), and a complaint brought before the UN Human Rights Committee which led to France being condemned for violating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in a case concerning the wearing of the veil in educational settings.

In February 2020, when President Macron received Asia Bibi (a Pakistani Christian sentenced to death for blasphemy, acquitted and now a refugee), Guez Guez tweeted: “Should I ask my undocumented clients to become Catholics so that they might be received by the Home Secretary? ” This reaction, which downplayed the religious persecution of a Christian woman in a Muslim country by contrasting it with a community grievance, was widely commented on as revealing an ideological stance that went beyond the professional role of a lawyer.

Academic and professional profile: As Headteacher of the Lycée Averroès in Lille, Eric Dufour is in charge of France’s largest private Muslim secondary school, which operates under a partnership agreement with the State. A convert to Islam, he is a former French teacher in the private Catholic education system.

Eric Dufour worked for 18 years in Catholic education before joining the Lycée Averroès in December 2007, out of personal choice and in support of the school’s educational mission. In an opinion piece published on Mediapart in February 2015 (“Why I am committed to Lycée Averroès”), he explains that he joined the school “out of love for this remarkable human and educational adventure”, “as a personal challenge midway through my career” and “with the desire to contribute my modest experience to a school that was responding to an injustice in the education system, whilst other faiths already had state-funded schools”. He gradually rose through the ranks until he was appointed headteacher in 2022. His conversion to Islam and his career path from Catholic education have been noted by the media.

The Lycée Averroès was founded in 2003 on the initiative of the UOIF (Union of Islamic Organisations of France, which became Musulmans de France in 2017), becoming the first private Muslim secondary school in France to obtain a state contract. Its creation and management are directly in line with the FM network’s educational strategy in France. In 2014, the association managing the school received a donation from Qatar Charity – a Qatari organisation identified in the Qatar Papers investigation (Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, 2019) as a conduit for funding FM political Islam in Europe. The alleged amount is €950,000. Since 2019, the Hauts-de-France Region has refused to pay the subsidy provided for in the contract, citing this Qatari donation.

In December 2023, a prefectural report accused the school of “separatism”, financial management irregularities and of providing teaching “contrary to the values of the Republic”. The report described the Muslim ethics course as “Salafist”, citing a blog post by Mohamed Louizi – although, according to Mediapart, Louizi never worked at the school and never attended the course in question. Louizi, in his work published on his blog Écrire sans censures, has devoted several detailed articles to the school: “UOIF’s Averroès Secondary School: The tree that hides the desert! ” (19 March 2015) and “Qatar and the School of Allah: The case of the Averroès High School” (31 August 2015), describing the school as the “educational flagship of the brotherist establishment strategy”. The May 2025 government report entitled “The Muslim Brotherhood and political Islam in France” identifies Averroès as “close to the Muslim Brotherhood”. Mediapart revealed that the prefecture had “truncated its report” with numerous errors and omissions.

On 23 April 2025, the Lille Administrative Court overturned the prefecture’s decision to terminate the partnership agreement, a victory secured by lawyer Sefen Guez Guez. The school had suffered a loss of more than €1.5 million in grants and half of its student numbers during the period of termination. The joint appearance of Dufour and his lawyer Guez Guez on the same talk show, “Loi séparatisme”, on RAMF 2026 highlights the intertwining of legal disputes and MF’s event strategy. The Averroès case has become a textbook example of the FM strategy: an institution with documented organic links to the UOIF and Qatari funding manages, through the courts, to turn the accusation of separatism into state victimisation – and this victory is then celebrated and framed as a narrative on the RAMF stage.

Academic and professional profile: A member of the Paris Bar since 1995, Dominique Cochain Assi is president of Lawyers for Justice in the Middle East (AJPO). At RAMF 2026, she will speak in the debate ‘The Palestinian cause, domestic and international law’.

Dominique Cochain has won cases before the European Court of Human Rights challenging the French criminalisation of BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), with the Court ruling that this criminalisation is unlawful. She argues that calls for a boycott constitute legitimate freedom of expression. She took part in the conference “The BDS campaign and the French justice system”. She is also the coordinator of the European legal response to Israeli legislation on the death penalty (March 2026), and she is associated with the UJFP (French Jewish Union for Peace) and the legal networks of Palestinian solidarity in France and Europe.

She defends individuals prosecuted for “glorifying terrorism” following 7 October 2023, challenging the use of this charge against expressions of solidarity with Palestine. Her profile is that of a pro-Palestinian activist lawyer whose legal battles (BDS, glorification of terrorism) functionally align with the interests of the FM network, with no documented organic link to the structures of Musulmans de France.

Academic and professional profile: A lawyer admitted to the Lyon Bar since December 2014, Ala Adas heads the law firm ADAS AVOCATS (2 Place Gailleton, 69002 Lyon). A Franco-Palestinian and an expert in civil law, procedural law and contract law with around 11 years’ experience, he has taken part in events in support of Palestine with activist groups (Collectif 69, La Fanfare à Manif Engagée).

Academic and professional profile: Born in 1950 in Oran (Algeria), Raphaël Pitti is an emergency doctor and anaesthetist-resuscitator. A military officer for 28 years (with the rank of colonel), he served on missions in Lebanon, the former Yugoslavia and the Gulf War. Having retired in 2004, he founded HuSoMe in 2018 (Metz), an NGO providing emergency medical training which has trained over 34,000 healthcare workers since its inception, including 7,700 Ukrainian healthcare workers and 450 surgeons since 2021. His previous involvement with UOSSM Grand Est since 2012: HuSoMe is the former UOSSM Grand Est. A specialist in war medicine, he has completed 35 missions in Syria since 2012 and two tours of duty in Gaza since 7 October 2023, as well as 15 missions in Ukraine.

Raphaël Pitti is a devout Christian and his humanitarian work is explicitly motivated by his Christian faith.

On the situation in Gaza, Raphaël Pitti stated: “All the characteristic aspects of genocide are present.” “What distinguishes a massacre from genocide is intent. And here, it is clear: Israel is deliberately choosing to starve the population. ” “We must disobey in the face of the massacre in Gaza.” He has been blocked three times by Israel. His interviews have been broadcast by RCF, France Bleu, France 2, PublicSénat, Blast Info and Oumma.com.

Academic and professional profile: Born on 11 October 1951 in Rabat (Morocco), Michèle Sibony is a French Jewish anti-Zionist. She lived in Israel between 1972 and 1977, where she studied at the University of Haifa. A member and spokesperson for the UJFP (French Jewish Union for Peace) since 2001, she is co-author of *A contre chœur* (with M. Warshawski, 2002) and *Antisionisme, une histoire juive* (with B. Ores and S. Fayman, Syllepse, 2023). An active supporter of BDS, she describes Israeli policies as “violent fascism” and denounces the conflation of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. At the RAMF 2026, she spoke in the debate “Messages from Gaza to the world”.

She had been a member of the Zionist Socialist Youth (UJFP) before turning to anti-Zionism

In 2017, Michèle Sibony wrote an opinion piece in Le Monde supporting Houria Bouteldja, a criticism echoed by Jack Dion (Marianne) as a “staggering allegiance to a woman who has publicly displayed her racism”. She has also been criticised by institutional French Jewish organisations. Sibony is the anti-Zionist Jewish voice that the FM network values precisely for her ability to defuse accusations of anti-Semitism. Her profile aligns functionally with the network’s interests, without any organic involvement in its structures.

Academic and professional profile: A state-registered nurse, Imane Maarifi was the first French nurse to enter Gaza (January–February 2024), on a mission carried out with the Palmed Europe association. She spent 15 days at the European Hospital in Khan Younis, an experience she recounted at the RAMF 2026 conference in a talk entitled ‘15 days in the hell of Gaza’. She has given evidence before the National Assembly and the European Parliament.

On 5 September 2024, Imane Maarifi was arrested: a search was carried out at her Paris home in the early hours of the morning in front of her husband and two children. The authorities accused her of “death threats on the grounds of race or religion” following a telephone call to the organisers of an Israeli property fair. Maarifi claims to have recorded the call, proving that she was asking questions without making threats. She was released without charge. The arrest sparked an international outcry. She states: “Nothing will stop me from supporting Palestine.” She is a nurse-activist whose first-hand humanitarian account serves as a symbolic resource for the RAMF, with no formal links to the structures of Musulmans de France.

Academic and professional profile: He holds a Master’s degree in Political Science and International Relations (University of Paris 13). Deputy Mayor of Meaux (with responsibility for energy efficiency and the fight against substandard housing), Ouahid Abassi is the founder and president of DIGNITÉ International, a humanitarian NGO established in 2014 in Meaux. At RAMF 2026, he will speak in the debate “Messages from Gaza to the world”.

DIGNITÉ International operates in around 20 countries in the fields of health, water, food security and education. Present in Gaza since 2014, the NGO has invested around €6 million in humanitarian aid in Gaza since 7 October 2023. Ouahid Abassi launched the Mojo Gaza project, aimed at training around 20 young Palestinians in audiovisual production (5- to 15-minute documentaries offering “reports from Gaza rather than about Gaza”). He is an ambassador for the Digital Africa Cluster. No major controversies have been documented.

Academic and professional profile: An angiologist practising in Strasbourg, Mohamed Abarguiss is an activist with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition – an international solidarity movement founded in 2010, organising civilian humanitarian aid missions by sea to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

During an operation in November 2025, the flotilla was intercepted by the Israeli military. In March 2026, Mohamed Abarguiss announced the organisation of the “largest flotilla to date”.

Academic and professional profile: Anass Patel is an entrepreneur specialising in Islamic finance and the founder and chairman of 570 Asset Management (2011), a firm that structures Sharia-compliant solutions.

He is also the founder and chairman of AIDIMM (Association for the Promotion of Islamic Finance in France), established in 2005. As a PhD student at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, he established the first halal mortgage for the French market, serving over 70,000 users. Founder of the crowdfunding platform Easi UP, he became CEO of ConexCap, a fintech initiative using blockchain for inclusive Islamic banking solutions in Europe, in partnership with the SnT laboratory at the University of Luxembourg. At RAMF 2026, he will deliver the lecture “Growing your capital ethically”. No regulatory issues have been documented.

Patel has developed a network independent of the brotherist network for Islamic finance in France. He operates within the same cultural sphere (French Islam, Muslim clientele) without any institutional affiliation to the FM network. His regular presence at the RAMF stems from a convergence of audience and subject matter, not from an organic commitment.

Academic and professional profile: A 34-year-old engineer and imam, Younes El Adly holds an Executive Master’s in Islamic Finance (Paris Dauphine) and is the founder of Laymoon, a halal neo-bank offering financial products analysed for halal compliance by experts in Islamic finance

Younes El Adly launched one of the most active French waqfs to date, Kebchi. Mizen This commitment to the waqf sector (Islamic charitable foundations). Laymoon was launched in March 2024. Laymoon is not a bank in the regulatory sense: it is a payment service provider. Its profile is that of an Islamic fintech entrepreneur whose presence at the RAMF is thematic, with no documented institutional link to FM structures.

Academic and professional profile: As co-founder of AWA (an Islamic ethical finance organisation founded in 2024), Chiji has over 15 years’ experience in Islamic finance. Based in Trappes, he promotes riba-free finance (interest, which is prohibited in Islam).

His commitment to ethical Islamic finance is part of an approach aimed at reconciling religious practice with modern economic tools.

Academic and professional profile: Born in December 1981, Redouane Zad has been co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cristalys since its establishment in 2018 in Rueil-Malmaison. He spent 12 years at Amundi as a manager specialising in structured products in the French and international life insurance markets. A graduate of Paris Dauphine-PSL University, where he teaches the course ‘Exotic Options and Structured Products’ on the Master 203 programme, he holds a key position within the French academic ecosystem of Islamic finance, particularly since Dauphine began offering an Executive Master’s in Islamic Finance in 2009. Cristalys focuses on data processing and technology.

His career combines professional experience in the structured finance sector with an academic commitment to teaching Islamic finance.

Notes: His work focuses on making the principles of Islamic finance accessible to and communicating them to the French-speaking public.

Academic and professional profile: Speaker on Islamic finance and co-host of the podcast “Parlons Finance Islamique” alongside Kader Merbouh, Yanis Mahmoud focuses his work on education and educational content in Islamic finance in France. He is a former participant in a certification programme in Islamic finance.

Academic and professional profile: Full Professor of Signal and Image Processing at the University of Technology of Troyes (UTT), Hichem Snoussi graduated from Supélec (2000) and holds a PhD from the University of Paris-Sud (2003). He co-founded AQUILAE in 2017, a company specialising in smart video surveillance. His research covers video processing, wireless sensor networks, artificial intelligence and anomaly detection.

His profile combines academic excellence with technological entrepreneurship. He is an academic whose presence at the RAMF is thematic (AI), with no documented links to FM structures.

Academic and professional profile: Morad Attik initially taught mathematics for eight years in France, Aleppo and Cairo. An entrepreneur and expert in artificial intelligence (AI), he founded Evolukid in 2014 with Rabah Attik, a robotics engineer and expert in data and artificial intelligence. He created the EdTech (educational technology) platform aimed at democratising access to technology. He co-authored *L'intelligence artificielle, tu connais ?* (Do You Know About Artificial Intelligence?), published in 2021 by Eyrolles, with a foreword by Luc Julia, the creator of Siri. He is also the founder of the KESK'IA programme, a talent pipeline for AI professionals from disadvantaged neighbourhoods to Silicon Valley.

His commitment combines technological expertise with a desire to reduce inequalities in access to digital education. The interview by Mizane.info confirms a presence within the Muslim media ecosystem, with no documented organic link to FM.

Academic and professional profile: Data Engineer at AXA Group Operations, Ayoub Oubibi graduated from the School of Information Sciences (ESI) in Rabat (2016) and is continuing his studies at the Institute of Business Administration (IAE) at Paris-Sorbonne. A trainer in machine learning and data analytics, he is the author of works analysing the challenges of AI in North Africa.

His profile combines operational technical expertise with an analysis of the regional challenges of artificial intelligence. His role at RAMF is thematic (AI, youth), consistent with the profile of a practitioner invited for his sector-specific expertise.

Academic and professional profile: A researcher at the Epidemiology Laboratory of the Faculty of Medicine at Mohammed First University (Oujda, Morocco), Ismail Chergui is said to be a specialist in telemedicine and artificial intelligence applied to healthcare. He also works in the Department of Nephrology at the Mohammed VI University Hospital Centre (CHU).

His work combines academic research in epidemiology with the clinical application of digital technologies.

Academic and professional profile: A computer science graduate from EPSI (Expert in Computer Science and Information Systems), Nouhaila Benabdelkader currently holds the position of Project Manager and AI Product Owner at Électricité de France (EDF). Before joining EDF, she worked for several major organisations: OPEN, the French Development Agency (AFD), La Poste Group and Sogeti. She has a professional digital presence on GitHub under the username ‘Nouhaben’.

Conferences: Trust in AI; AI and health diagnostics

Her career path reflects a growing involvement in the digital transformation strategies of major French organisations. Profile of an AI engineer and project manager in the French public sector, invited to the RAMF for her thematic expertise, with no documented organic link to FM organisations.

Academic and professional profile: Lecturer on programming ethics and new forms of organisation.

The biographical information available in open sources is insufficient to draw up a detailed profile.

Comments: His approach combines medical commitment with ethical reflection on the implications of AI for knowledge generation and decision-making.

Academic and professional profile: Doctor of Medicine and rheumatologist practising in Bergerac. Having qualified as a doctor of medicine in Limoges in 1989 and completed his specialist training in rheumatology in Limoges in 1994, Mahjoub Abdeddaim combines his medical commitment with a reflection on the dialogue between science and faith in the age of artificial intelligence. Author of an article on Zaghloul Al-Najjar (November 2025), a leading figure in ijaz ilmi (scientific exegesis of the Quran), a movement that bridges modern science and Quranic revelation – a key figure in contemporary Islamic intellectual renewal. He has formulated seven ethical principles for the responsible use of AI: do not confuse answers with proof, ask for sources, contextualise, seek alternatives, question contradictions, never delegate decision-making responsibility, and take a step back before sharing.

Academic and professional background: As Marketing & Innovation Manager at Sodexo, Mohamed Rachad Boumokohla addresses the challenges of generative AI and digital transformation in the food sector.

His professional background lies in the contract catering sector and technological innovation. Profile of a marketing executive at a multinational company invited to the RAMF to speak on an AI-related topic, with no documented organic link to FM organisations.

Academic and professional profile: Researcher at the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit at University College London since January 2025, Houssam Zenati has a strong scientific background: a PhD in Computer Science from the Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique (INRIA) Thoth, an engineering degree from CentraleSupélec, and a Master’s in Science from the University of Paris-Saclay via the École Normale Supérieure (ENS). Two papers based on his work have been accepted for the NeurIPS conference (2025). His research focuses on causal inference, bandit algorithms and anomaly detection. He has undertaken research internships at IBM Research AI (Tokyo, 2018) and at the Institute for Infocomm Research ASTAR (Singapore) Houssamzenati – a track record of international excellence.

His profile reflects academic excellence in theoretical and applied computer science. A researcher of academic excellence invited to the RAMF to work on a consumer AI theme, with no documented organic link to FM structures.

Academic and professional profile: A state-registered psychologist and member of the International Association of Muslim Psychologists (IAMP), Wahiba Bahhou studied in France and Canada. She specialises in integrating Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) with Islamic psychology, thereby combining a scientific approach with the spiritual dimensions of psychological healing.

Her approach is innovative, linking the rigorous frameworks of CBT with the values and concepts of Islamic spirituality.

Comments: Her approach recognises the complexity of migration and family histories in shaping mental health.

Academic and professional profile: A psychologist in private practice in Villeneuve-d'Ascq (Nord) for several years, Meriem Saghrouni specialises in intercultural psychology. She offers therapeutic support for couples and adults, with a particular focus on intercultural issues. Active on professional networks, notably on Facebook under the profile ‘Meriempsyinterculturelle’, she produces content on children’s psychological development and family dynamics.

Comments: Public sources provide insufficient biographical information.

Academic and professional profile: Speaker on psychological distress and spiritual resilience.

Academic and professional profile: A specialist in supporting neuro-atypical children and addressing issues related to hypersensitivity.

Lecture: Neuro-atypical children; Workshop: Hypersensitivity

Public sources provide insufficient biographical information.

Academic and professional background: With a background in engineering (MINES ParisTech and MATMECA for her specialised master’s degree), Khaoula Dohrmi has retrained to support families with neuro-atypical children. She founded Atypicentre, a platform for psychoeducation and parental guidance dedicated to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and High Intellectual Potential (HIP) in children and mothers. She hosts the ATYPICAST podcast, described as the media outlet for “free and self-aware atypical individuals”, which is specifically aimed at Muslim families affected by ADHD, GID or autism spectrum disorders, offering practical advice, personal accounts and insights from neuroscience. At the same time, she is studying Islamic psychology. She maintains an active online presence on Instagram (@atypicentre, @enfantatypique_tdahpi), TikTok and Pinterest.

Her career change reflects a desire to adapt neurodevelopmental approaches to the specific context of Muslim families. An entrepreneur specialising in supporting neuroatypical Muslim families, she is present at the RAMF to address a specific theme, with no documented organic link to the FM structures.

Comments: Her work combines evidence-based teaching methods (positive discipline) with a grounding in Muslim educational traditions.

Academic and professional profile: Fatima Becheri holds a Master’s degree in Education and works as a trainer in positive discipline and a parenting consultant. She incorporates Islamic values into her support work and runs workshops at the El-Hidaya Mosque in Reims.

She is also a marriage and family counsellor.

Her work combines evidence-based pedagogy (positive discipline) with a grounding in Muslim educational traditions. Her profile is that of a practitioner of positive parenting rooted in Islamic values, working at a local mosque. The El-Hidaya Mosque in Reims is not identified as an organisation directly affiliated with Musulmans de France in the available sources

Comments: Open-source material provides insufficient biographical information to expand on this profile further.

Academic and professional profile: Speaker on marriage and family matters.

Academic and professional background: Family and couples counsellor.

Open sources provide insufficient biographical information.

Academic and professional profile: Fanta Fadiga is a psychologist specialising in couples therapy practising in Boulogne-Billancourt. She is multilingual, fluent in Afrikaans, Arabic, Bambara and French.

Her intercultural approach draws on her multilingual and multicultural experience.

Academic and professional profile: Ibtissem Grissa, who holds a PhD in biology, is pursuing a career as a researcher in bioinformatics. She collaborates in particular with Gilles Vergnaud and Christine Pourcel on research concerning CRISPR systems, as evidenced by her profiles on ResearchGate, DBLP and Semantic Scholar. She also sits on the editorial board of a publication dedicated to Islamic foundations, values and practices.

Her academic involvement in bioinformatics is accompanied by a reflective commitment to the ethical and spiritual issues of science. A bioinformatics researcher whose presence at RAMF is thematic (ethics of consumption, spirituality), with no documented organic link to FM structures.

Academic and professional profile: Lecturer on the Muslim family.

Public sources provide insufficient biographical information.

Academic and professional profile: Speaker on parenting children with disabilities. Fatima Naqrouz is identified as the pharmacist and manager of the Pharmacie Porte de la Chapelle, located in the 18th arrondissement of Paris and established in 2008.

Her LinkedIn profile explicitly mentions her interest in carers and disability [[LinkedIn]{.underline}](https://www.linkedin.com/in/fatima-naqrouz-56079319b/), which establishes a link between her professional activity in healthcare and her presence on the RAMF forum on the topic of ‘parents of children with disabilities’.

Academic and professional profile: Nahida Enderra, an author and life coach who has published *Aime chaque jour* (*Love Every Day*), works as a personal development and spirituality coach. She maintains an active presence on social media. The editorial positioning (Islam section, references to prayer, faith and fitra in the reviews) clearly indicates that the book falls within the genre of Islamic personal development literature, rather than general personal development. *Éditions Pour Tous* (EDT) is a publishing house specialising in Islamic literature. Author and coach within the Islamic personal development community, present at the RAMF for themed workshops (harassment, consultations), with no documented organic link to FM structures.

Her approach combines contemporary coaching practices with spiritual references.

Comments: The name may appear incomplete in the participant records.

Academic and professional profile: Lecturer and trainer on child-rearing and managing marital conflicts.

The name may appear incomplete in the speaker records. Open sources provide insufficient biographical information.

Academic and professional profile: Family counsellor.

Personal biographical information regarding Alaa Jaballah remains scarce in open sources. The possible family link with Ahmed Jaballah could not be verified, but the identical surname and involvement in the RAMF are indications of a contextual proximity to the network.

Academic and professional profile: Abidallah Roukia, a primary school teacher, runs family dialogue workshops as part of the RAMF.

Her commitment to family dialogue is rooted in the primary education sector.

Academic and professional profile: Family counsellor and co-author, with Mounir Hedhli, of *Vivre Pleinement La Omra* (published by Les Trésors du Savoir), a spiritual guide dedicated to the pilgrimage. Fouad Ben Yaala also chairs Accelerator Data & Digital Transformation, an IT firm based in the Île-de-France region.

His profile combines family counselling with technological expertise. A hybrid profile (IT consultant + author of a spiritual guide on the Umrah + family counsellor at the RAMF) with no documented organic link to FM organisations.

Comments: Her teaching approach makes religious education fun and accessible.

Academic and professional profile: A children’s author who has published around twenty Islamic books for children, Fatima Zeghari Metalbi is co-author, with Amine Rahali, of ‘La Grande Course vers le Paradis’ (SANA, 2015), a comic book that combines adventure storytelling with the teaching of Islamic principles. She works as a skills development manager in educational institutions and runs activities for children and parents.

Notes: Public sources provide insufficient biographical information.

Academic and professional background: Family counsellor.

Academic and professional profile: A trained nurse who has gained expertise in therapeutic nutrition, nutritional therapy and micronutrition under the guidance of renowned specialists (Dr Cotinat, Dr Chavaux, Dr Tourrasse, Dr Rougier), Émilie Aït Naceur works as a Holistic Health, Nutrition & Stress Management Consultant. She supports her clients in developing balanced nutritional menus and adopting sustainable healthy eating habits.

Her approach combines nursing training with specialisations in micronutrition. A healthcare professional specialising in nutrition, she works with the RAMF on family wellbeing issues – a thematic focus with no documented organic link to FM structures.

Academic and professional profile: Author, project manager and artistic director specialising in the production of Islamic religious books for Muslim children, Amine Rahali has published *The Key to Paradise ’ (Sana Kids Publishing), an interactive book presenting the principles of the Islamic faith and Tawhid (the oneness of God) in 13 steps, as well as ‘The 99 Names of Allah to Reach Paradise’. He is co-author with Fatima Metalbi of “The Great Race to Paradise” (SANA Editions, 2015). He runs reading workshops.

The Key to Paradise benefits from the contribution of Sheikh Othmane Iquioussen of Librairie Sana, a key figure in Islamism brotherist in France, who was deported to Morocco in 2022 following lengthy proceedings.

The book was also proofread and edited by Sheikh Omar Dourmane,

a member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars

Avenue du Muslim (an organisation linked to Qaradawi), and Sheikh Ismaïl Mounir.

His work is part of an effort to promote religious reading among Muslim children.

Academic and professional profile: Lecturer on spirituality and studies.

Public sources provide insufficient biographical information.

Academic and professional profile: President of FEMYSO (Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations) since December 2023, Hania Chalal represents 32 member organisations based in 22 countries. She was previously the first woman to be elected as national president of the Muslim Students of France (EMF). The Baden-Württemberg intelligence service describes FEMYSO as “the umbrella organisation for Muslim Brotherhood youth work”. Ibrahim El-Zayat, a leading figure among Muslim Brotherhood in Germany, has held a key executive position within FEMYSO. In July 2025, seven MEPs questioned the European Commission about the €210,000 in Erasmus+ funding granted to the organisation. The French government report of May 2025 identifies FEMYSO as a “channel of influence for the Muslim Brotherhood”. The organisation has denounced these accusations as “false and malicious” and reaffirmed its independence from any political party.

Her multiple responsibilities as an emerging figure in Muslim youth work in Europe position Hania Chalal as a key interlocutor on political issues affecting the Western Muslim world.

Academic and professional profile: PhD in Biochemical Sciences from Ghent University and holder of a Master’s degree in European Studies, Karim Chemlal is the founder and spokesperson of the Muslim League of Belgium (LMB), of which he is also vice-president. He holds a leadership position within the Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe (FIOE), a network described as the umbrella organisation for Muslim Brotherhood on the continent. The LMB itself forms part of the organisational structure of the FM movement in Belgium. He is also associated with the FINNOVA Foundation in connection with his European work.

His threefold background-national (LMB), European (FIOE) and academic in biochemistry-gives him legitimacy in contemporary debates. Karim Chemlal is one of the institutional pillars of the Belgian FM network: co-founder of the LMB, public spokesperson, and director of ENORB/FIOE. He is the Belgian counterpart to figures such as Amar Lasfar on the French side.

Academic and professional profile: Abderrahim Bouzelmate, a secondary school teacher of modern literature in Marseille, specialises in 19th-century French history and the history of the Muslim West. Author of ‘Al-Andalus: An Essential History’ (2017), a work highlighting the harmonious coexistence of Muslims, Jews and Christians in the medieval period, and of ‘Averroes, Philosopher of Humanity ’ (2020), he has also published several historical novels, notably ‘The Emir of Cordoba’ and ‘Fatima al-Fihriyya’. He is involved in the northern districts of Marseille as an educator. His approach is more historically and academically oriented than explicitly ideological, with no documented connection to the Centre Mémoriel de la Fraternité (CMF) or other controversial organisations.

His work highlights the intellectual and cultural contributions of medieval Muslim history to a young French-speaking audience.

Academic and professional profile: As a publisher and researcher, Armand Garnier is the author of *Les Convertis à l'islam (1100–2018)*, a scholarly study of conversions to Islam throughout history (Classiques Garnier). He is associated with the Collectif de la Fraternité Islamique Française, a group of French converts aiming to overcome post-conversion isolation through mutual support.

His work combines scholarly publishing with community support for converts.

Academic and professional profile: Founder and manager of L'Arche Paysanne, a 4-hectare educational farm based in La Grande-Paroisse (Seine-et-Marne), Chamsi Douss runs an educational and community-based organisation offering childcare services and sustainable farming activities. L'Arche breeds endangered animal breeds (Fossé goats, Jacob and Soay sheep, Gâtinaise hens, Toulouse geese) using methods free from pesticides and chemical fertilisers.

Chamsi Douss’s Viadeo profile lists professional experience between 2010 and 2016 (internship in Saudi Arabia 2010–2011, internship at Renault in 2012, internship at Lacoste in 2013, Lacoste 2014–2016), with his first role (Riyadh) beginning in 2010.

His commitment combines environmental education with the preservation of agricultural biodiversity.

Academic and professional profile: Speaker on Islamophobia.

Public sources provide insufficient biographical information.

Academic and professional profile: A PhD student in sociology at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and the University of Paris 1, Zinedine Gaid works as a philosophy teacher at the MHS (a private, universalist secondary school in Paris that permits religious symbols). He is the author of ‘Reflections on the Muslim Question’ and ‘All It Takes Is a Spark! Identity, Idolatry and Civil War”, critical analyses of the application of secularism. He defines Islamism as the blurring of the lines between Islam as a religion, culture and ideology, rejecting “archi-religious and totalising visions of Islam”.

The MHS school was closed by the authorities on 23 November, who justified this decision on “administrative grounds” and portrayed the establishment as harbouring “dangerous separatists”.

His first book, Reflections on the Muslim Question, explores in particular the questions: “Why is the ‘Muslim question’ an unresolved ‘Jewish question’?” and “Why must secularism be desecrated in order for it to be fully realised?”

Published in Mizane.info

Academic and professional profile: Pierre Sicar, an academic specialising in American history and political science at the University of Picardie, is the author of *Regards sur l'Amérique* (2011) and *Les partis et la vie politique aux États-Unis ” (2012).

His expertise covers North American political issues. His appearance on the talk show “Laïcité” is no doubt due to his comparative Franco-American expertise on the separation of church and state – a typical profile for an external academic guest brought in to lend credibility to a community debate.

Academic and professional profile: As Deputy Director of the Health Division at the French Development Agency (AFD), Pierre Kempf specialises in pandemic prevention and the ‘One Health’ approach, which integrates human, animal and environmental dimensions into health policies. *Marianne* revealed in 2025 that the AFD had funded the Platform of French NGOs for Palestine to the tune of €1.3 million between 2009 and 2026. According to a Renaissance MP, this platform “actively contributed to a disinformation campaign aimed at legitimising hatred of Israel, notably by sharing content from media outlets and influencers close to Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas or those prosecuted for glorifying terrorism”

Her profile is in line with international development expertise.

Academic and professional profile: A speaker on dialogue in a fragmented society.

Public sources provide insufficient biographical information.

Academic and professional profile: A speaker on issues of priority to the Muslim community.

Public sources provide insufficient biographical information.

Comments: His initiative is part of an effort to promote Muslim professionalism.

Academic and professional profile: Editor-in-chief of the Cadres Muslims Network, a professional club for executives, managers and entrepreneurs who align their professional practice with Muslim values (founded in 2024), Soufiane Chenafa promotes professional success within the framework of Muslim ethics.

His initiative is part of an effort to promote Muslim professionalism. A sales executive who has transitioned into an entrepreneur within a Muslim community professional network – a profile representative of the rise of the Islamic entrepreneurial ecosystem in France since the 2010s (

Academic and professional profile: As a QA (Quality Assurance) tester and QA Lead in the IT sector using an agile approach, Cédric Beausejour is involved with the Tawakkoul app, a tool designed to ensure transparency in halal certification. The Tawakkoul app was created by Safwaane Patel (an ESIEA graduate) in 2017, initially named ‘Update Halal Paris’, a project aimed at centralising information on certified halal restaurants in France. The precise link between Beausejour and Tawakkoul is not publicly documented.

His involvement in the IT quality assurance sector complements the app’s technical ecosystem.

Academic and professional profile: **ESIEA graduate.** ESIEA (École Supérieure d'Informatique, Électronique, Automatique) is a Parisian engineering school. Creator and founder of the Tawakkoul app, launched in 2017, Safwaane Patel, an ESIEA graduate and young Muslim from the Île-de-France region, designed this collaborative tool for verifying and ensuring transparency regarding halal certifications in French restaurants. The app operates on a collaborative model where users report available certifications.

His technological initiative addresses the community’s need for reliability in halal consumption. Fair. A technology entrepreneur within the halal community ecosystem, with no documented organic links to FM organisations.

Comments: His approach prioritises community benefit and technological accessibility.

Academic and professional profile: Developer and creator of the Mawaqit app (prayer times, Quranic texts, Qibla compass), Faisal has developed an open-source, non-profit project that has been downloaded over 4 million times in 160 countries, with 7,200 places of worship in France integrated into the platform. All features are available without adverts.

Academic and professional profile: Full name:

Abdelfahem Amhal

`. Co-founder, alongside Hamid Ouaïch, of Studio Karama (Belgium, founded in June 2024), Fahem is the creator of the manga ‘Hidaya: Wira and the Spiritual World’, which features a young man addicted to video games who discovers Islamic wisdom through prophetic stories.

Fahem and Hamid Ouaïch are brothers-in-lawBrothers. They began working together in 2019, before founding Studio Karama in June 2024 following a crowdfunding campaign. Karama Studio is described as “Belgium’s first manga production studio”, offering content inspired by Muslim spiritual culture.

Its creative approach combines fictional storytelling with the transmission of ethical values. There is no documented organic link with FM structures.

Academic and professional profile: Co-founder, alongside Fahem, of Karama Studio (Belgium) and co-creator of the manga “Hidaya”, Hamid Ouaïch contributes to cultural output that combines entertainment with ethical content inspired by Muslim spirituality. Karama Studio is described as “Belgium’s first manga production studio”, offering content inspired by Muslim spiritual culture.

His work is part of a drive to offer alternative Muslim cultural productions. Same profile as Fahem – a Belgian cultural creator of Moroccan origin, present at the RAMF for his work, with no documented organic link to FM structures.

Academic and professional profile: Director, researcher and cinematographer, Ubaydah Abu-Usayd is co-director of the film *Soumaya ” (2019) alongside Waheed Khan and founder of Cerceau (Centre for Educational and Research in Cinema and Audiovisual, 2014). His film work has resulted in around 60 screenings in France, Belgium and Switzerland, as well as in academic settings (Paris Dauphine University, Sciences Po Lille, University of Lausanne). The co-production of the film *Soumaya* was developed in close collaboration with the CCIF, an association linked to the brotherist movement, which was dissolved in 2020 due to its involvement in the Samuel Paty case.

His filmmaking focuses on exploring contemporary socio-political issues.

Academic and professional profile: Director and co-director of *Soumaya* (2019) alongside Ubaydah Abu-Usayd, Waheed Khan produces films that present the perspective of the victims of the state’s security policies.

Academic and professional profile: As the film screenings coordinator for the event, Dhia Ben Naser is responsible for the selection and curatorial logistics of several film programmes.

His role is more logistical than creative.

Academic and professional profile: As film screening coordinator, Ouissem Satouri is involved in the curatorial selection of film programmes. He is a columnist for Beur FM (a French-language community radio station) and his Twitter account has been suspended. He is an editor for Ahly Magazine, a webzine for the Muslim community, and an active member of the Repères et Vocations association, which is behind the documentary series.

His involvement relates to logistical coordination.

Academic and professional profile: As film screening coordinator, Hisham Salem helps select and organise screenings. He is the director and producer of the documentary **“ Averroès: Beyond Prejudice”**, which traces the history of the Averroès Muslim secondary school in Lille (2008–2023), whose partnership agreement with the State was terminated by the prefecture. In April 2025, several cinemas cancelled screenings of the film, which he denounced as “political censorship”.

Academic and professional profile: A neuroradiologist trained at Paris Descartes University and currently a consultant in neuroradiology at the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), Abderrahmane Hedjoudje combines his medical practice with social entrepreneurship and filmmaking. Co-founder of Imagerie médicale VLG (2024), he co-directed with Ubaydah Abu-Usayd the documentary “Your Last Walk in the Mosque ” (2018, 48 mins), a France-Canada co-production documenting the victims and survivors of the attack on the Quebec City mosque on 29 January 2017. The project received funding from Dawanet in collaboration with MuslimFest and Canada Zakat. He also contributed to the documentary “Californian Muslim”.

His humanitarian and cinematic commitment is rooted in documenting anti-Muslim violence and the resilience of the victims. Hedjoudje is a leading medical researcher (Johns Hopkins, HUG) whose film work focuses on anti-Muslim violence.

Academic and professional profile: In conjunction with documentary film screenings. Gabriel Marchand is one of the three co-directors of the documentary series **“Unexpected Muslims”**, alongside Dh Anadolu Ajansıia Ben Naser and Ouissem Satouri. He is described as a convert to Islam. The three met at university.

He is co-director of *Road to Sarajevo* (Sarajevo in the programme), *Hui* (on Muslims in China), and *Somos Musulmanes* (on Mexican Muslims), all produced under the auspices of Repères et Vocations

Public sources provide insufficient biographical information.

Academic and professional profile: Norwegian director and animator Mats Grorud directed “Wardi” (La Tour, 2018), a stop-motion film documenting daily life in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. A Swedish-Norwegian-French co-production, this project is rooted in the director’s personal experience: his mother worked as a nurse in Lebanon in the 1980s, and Mats Grorud himself spent a year in Beirut in 2001. Mats Grorud first visited Lebanon in the late 1990s as part of a trip organised by the **Committee for Palestine**, a solidarity organisation for Palestinians in Norway. He subsequently studied at the American University of Beirut and taught animation classes in the Bourj el-Barajneh camp. In October 2023, in the aftermath of 7 October, the Paris education authority removed *Wardi* from the “Collège au cinéma” programme, citing the “context of extreme international tension”. Grorud is the only contributor in the corpus whose nationality is non-Muslim, non-French, non-Belgian and who has no institutional links to the organised Islamic ecosystem.

His artistic approach demonstrates a sensitivity to humanitarian realities and to the Palestinian dimension of regional issues in the Middle East.

Academic and professional profile: Danish director and animator Karsten Kiilerich directed “Amir and Mina” (2018), adapted from a Danish children’s novel from the 1970s. Previously nominated for an Oscar in 1999 for his short film “When Life Departs”,

His commitment to youth film production is underpinned by international academic recognition.