"[13] According to Amélie Barras, Associate Professor at the Social Science Department of York University: "The CCIF is of particular interest, in my view, because it could be considered to be the first litigating group on issues related to religious freedom and the public presence of Islam in France.
[14] According to Haoues Seniguer, assistant director of the IISMM [fr], in its attempt to abolish the 2004 law, the CCIF is acknowledging that in practice, the wearing of the hijab is non-negotiable in religious terms.
[24][26] Critics such as the journalists Caroline Fourest,[27] Eugénie Bastié,[28] Mohamed Sifaoui,[29] Zineb El Rhazoui,[30] the politician Marine Le Pen,[31] or the political scientist Gilles Kepel,[32] have accused the CCIF of having links to the Islamist group Muslim Brotherhood, or to have an Islamist agenda,[33] which is denied by the organisation.
[34][35] With the controversial Marwan Muhammad [fr], suspected of connivence with radical Islamism, who was spokesperson from 2010 to 2014, and then executive director in 2016 and 2017, came the first criticisms against the CCIF.
[22] According to an ancient specialist of Islam in the Minister of the Interior, Bernard Godard [fr], the CCIF is autonomous, receive no aid from Muslim brotherhood.
[36] The newspaper Le Monde has checked its own archives of articles about CCIF from 2004 to 2020, and wrote that it is "often described as an association fighting anti-Muslim racism, never as a propagator of Islamism".
[41] Several French politicians declared to be in favor of the dissolution, such as Manuel Valls, Julien Aubert, Bruno Retailleau,[42] Nicolas Bay, Jordan Bardella.
[43] Darmanin's call to dissolve the group was criticized by NGOs Amnesty international, and European Network Against Racism, concerned that this could undermine freedoms of expression and association.
The organisation's response was that it was still in the process of researching the father's claim, and does not intervene in freedom of speech controversies like the one involving Paty.