Paris, France - The rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris Dalil Boubakeur was appointed Sunday for a second term as president of the French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM), the body which officially represents Islam in France.
Widely seen as a moderate with close relations with the government, Boubakeur was named by the CFCM's 42-member administrative council which was sitting for the first time since nationwide elections a week ago.
The council also chose the CFCM's 17-member executive council, which contains representatives from the main rival formations inside French Islam.
French President Jacques Chirac hailed the reelection, saying it had made possible the "bringing together of all sensibilities in a spirit of dialogue." The Elysee Palace said Chirac had telephoned Boubakeur to congratulate him -- good wishes were also forthcoming from Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.
Earlier the radical Union of Islamic Organisations in France (UOIF) had threatened to boycott the executive complaining of vote-rigging in last Sunday's poll, in which it was beaten by the moderate National Federation of Muslims of France (FNMF).
However after the personal intervention of Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy -- who helped set up the CFCM two years ago -- the UOIF agreed to participate.
"I thought that if I let things go, we would create the conditions for division. There would be a split between so-called moderates and so-called extremists," Sarkozy said.
In last Sunday's vote some 5,000 delegates from more than 1,000 mosques across France awarded 19 seats on the administrative council to the FNMF and ten each to UOIF and the Grand Mosque of Paris.
The CFCM was created to give the government a single official interlocutor among the country's five million strong Muslim community, and to discourage what Sarkozy called the "Islam of basements and garages."
Though hamstrung by internal divisions and much criticised by liberals for overly representing radical groups, the body has become a recognised public institution with responsibility for issues such as the funding of mosques, ritual slaughter and the appointment of clerics in prisons and the armed forces.
The CFCM's subsidiary regional councils are increasingly seen by local authorities as vital conduits to Muslim residents.