(RAIR Foundation)—France’s Grand Mosque scandal shows how a foreign government can buy political endorsements through a religious leader, reward them with an exclusive multi-million-euro halal monopoly, and quietly turn a house of worship into a political and economic proxy—a playbook now primed to be used in the United States.
When Emmanuel Macron cruised to re-election in 2022, one of his most visible endorsements came from an unlikely source: the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, Chems-Eddine Hafiz. In the weeks before the vote, Hafiz publicly urged Muslims to back Macron over Marine Le Pen. He now admits the endorsement was made “at the request” of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
Within months, the French government handed the Grand Mosque an exclusive, government-recognized monopoly over halal certification for all European exports to Algeria—a multimillion-euro market covering meat, dairy, cosmetics, and more. French officials privately estimate the mosque’s annual take at well above €15 million, while independent lawmakers have suggested the real figure could be multiples higher.
The deal, described by European Parliament members as a distortion of competition and a breach of secular principles, illustrates the merging of religious, economic, and geopolitical influence: foreign political backing traded for economic privilege.
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