Attempts to set up a new Islamic studies course in Strasbourg are apparently being hampered by a fresh wave of anxiety about Islamic fundamentalism triggered by the recent bomb attack on the Paris underground.
The bomb is thought to be the work of Algerian extremists who entered France recently.
Ironically, the report which advises the setting up of a new course of Islamic studies is motivated by concern to foster moderate Islam and cater for the needs of the French Muslim community.
Etienne Trocme, the former president of the Strasbourg human sciences university, submitted his report on November 20. But French media reports that the university was due to discuss the proposals at the start of December led to a hurried denial from the current president, Albert Hamm.
In a communique, Mr Hamm insisted that there has been no discussion of the report and called speculation "premature".
However, the university initially commissioned the report with the intention of moving ahead with implementation of the planned new course. In his letter commissioning the report, Mr Hamm noted that there was a "strong social demand" in France for this type of teaching.
Mr Trocme has been campaigning for an Islamic course for years. Strasbourg university already has France's only public university faculties of Roman Catholic and Protestant theology.
Many students in these faculties also follow church training in order to be ordained. The future Islamic courses would initially be based at the existing department of Arab and Islamic studies but eventually become a separate faculty of Islamic theology.
The report recommends setting up a two-year diploma course next October, to be followed by a bachelor's degree and then a master's course later. The courses would be taught in French by mainstream university academics and include a comparative religions module.
Specialists from Middle Eastern or North African universities would be invited occasionally for special seminars. Students could follow mosque training in parallel to become imams, but could equally take a Muslim theology degree in order to become teachers or specialists in Islamic law, history or sociology.
According to Mr Trocme, this structuring of the courses would ensure that an "Islam a la francaise" was taught, with no dependency on a foreign country.
At the university's request, part of the report also tackles the question of improving religious culture in general. French state schools are strictly secular and not allowed to teach religion.
There is growing concern in France that young people lack the religious references which form one of the main pillars of French and Western culture. The report advises setting up a degree course in the history and culture of religion, to meet the growing demand for trainers able to fill the gaps in a secular education.