PARIS (RNS) New Muslim groups are mushrooming in France, reflecting a growing disenchantment with the country’s main Islamic organization and an openness to non-practicing Muslims.

The latest group, launched June 12, is a federation of some 40 Muslim associations dubbed Mosaic. It plans to offer a voice for secular Muslims — in the spirit of France’s influential Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions, or CRIF.

“Only viewing Muslims through a religious prism offers a wrong view of Muslims in general,” founder Marouane Bouloudhnine told Le Figaro newspaper. “Today, the vast majority of French Muslims are non-practicing.”

Just how many of France’s estimated five to six million Muslims actually practice their faith is difficult to say — the government bans all official statistics based on religion or ethnic origin. But a number of surveys indicate that a solid chunk of Muslims here, possibly the majority, do not go to the mosque regularly or observe Ramadan, the holy month of fasting. France has the largest Islamic population in western Europe.

Moreover, many feel alienated from the French Council of the Muslim Faith, the main Islamic group. Launched in 2003 under the tutelage of the French government, the council has been torn apart by rivalries between different ethnic and religious currents.

The infighting came to a head last year, when then-president Dalil Boubakeur, who also heads the Algeria-backed Paris Grand Mosque, boycotted elections to pick a new leader, citing unfair voting procedures. Council leaders chose Mohammed Moussaoui of the rival Morocco-backed Rally of French Muslims instead.

Largely because of the bickering, critics say, the council has achieved little during its six years of existence.

“We need to end this kind of nationalism. It doesn’t serve Islam in France, it just divides people,” said Benabdellah Soufari, who heads the dissident Francophone Community of the Muslim Faith, founded a few years ago.

Muslim clerics are also beginning to seek alternatives to the main French council. This month, a group of imams and scholars launched another association, the Conference of Imams of France, aimed to promote religious dialogue and tolerance.

And in May, a business leader created yet another faith-based group to help the poor, children and the elderly within the Muslim community.