“This heritage is also that of French Muslims”
Sofiane walks past it every evening on his way home from his student job. At nightfall, when it has calmed down, around 8:30 p.m., this 27-year-old professor crosses the square to the bridge before taking the metro to Saint-Michel. “Even as I trace my path, I always glance. » A look at this tall, thousand-year-old building, Notre-Dame de Paris, which overlooks the Île de la Cité. By passing in front of these tall towers, Sofiane learned to love its facade, the color of its stone, its rose window too. And then the romantic atmosphere that surrounds it in the evening, when couples come to sit on the stands facing it. “If I had a girlfriend, he confides, I would really like to offer her a bouquet of flowers in front of Notre-Dame. »
A practicing Muslim, Sofiane is not attached to the cathedral as a spiritual place. It rather reminds him of a symbol of France, a bit like the Eiffel Tower. Or the imagination of his childhood and Hunchback of Notre Damewhich he watched when he was little. For him, this religious place has become part of French heritage, and in doing so, belongs to everyone. He draws a parallel: “If the Grand Mosque of Paris burned, non-Muslims would be sad too, right? »
Like him, many French Muslims testify to their connection to Notre-Dame, whether spiritual, cultural or civic. A sign of this attachment, after the fire of April 2019, initiatives were listed here and there. While online citizen funds were flourishing, one of them, entitled “Muslims in solidarity with Notre-Dame”, was launched by and for Muslims. Its initiator, researcher Elyamine Settoul, explained at the time that this gesture was a way of reaffirming their roots in this country. “The French of the Muslim faith are from this country, they speak, think and dream in French, he recalled. Therefore, this heritage is also theirs. »
“The atmosphere invites interiority”
In July 2019, the Together with Mary movement, promoter of Islamic-Christian dialogue, also organized at the request of Muslims an interreligious gathering for Notre-Dame on the Quai de la Tournelle, as a sign of fraternity. Ghaleb Bencheikh, president of the Foundation of Islam of France, had participated in a dove release with Mgr Jachiet, then auxiliary bishop of Paris. Son of Abbas Bencheikh, rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris from 1982 to 1989, Ghaleb Bencheikh remembers going down, as a young man, from the rector’s apartments, in the heart of the Latin Quarter, to the Île de la Cité to take a moment of meditation at the cathedral. “The atmosphere invites interiority. »
Today, Ghaleb Bencheikh is attached to the cathedral as “French citizen”, and out of respect for its thousand-year-old history, “the coronation of Napoleon as well as the burial of heads of state or French literature”.
Not to mention that the Islamic tradition gives a great place to the figure of Mary, mother of Jesus, to the point that the Koran devotes an entire surah to her. “He is a mediating figure between Christians and Muslims,” underlines Ghaleb Bencheikh. Thus, places of worship dedicated to it can become shared places. “Notre-Dame de Paris remains a place of visit for Muslims in France. » Like different places where Muslims practice popular devotion to the Virgin Mary, such as Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde in Marseille or Notre-Dame-d’Afrique in Algiers.
“By ignorance, we move away, while we have figures that bring us together,” also believes Azad Hedaraly, president of the Shiite Council of France. Bathed in an interfaith environment, this father has already gone to ask for the intercession of Mary in Lourdes. Notre-Dame de Paris, for him, is part of the continuity of these shared places of worship. “Notre-Dame is the house of God and it is no one’s monopoly,” he said. It is a place of God which is also mine. »
