A mosque in France has been ordered shut for six months for “inciting violence” in line with the latest French policies to curb the growth of Islam in the country.
The prefecture of the Oise département said the large mosque in Beauvais was closed for “inciting hatred”, “violence” and “apology of jihad”. A local French citizen suggested this only happened because one of the Imams spoke out against Jews.
France’s interior minister Gérald Darmanin announced on December 14 that he had “set in motion” the procedure for the administrative closure of this mosque because of “unacceptable” preachings “against Christians, homosexuals and Jews”.
The lawyer for the “Espoir et Fraternité” (“Hope and Fraternity”) NGO, which runs the mosque, Samim Bolaky, said that he had lodged an appeal to the administrative court in Amiens against this decision.
Bolaky said the authorities were targeting “certain remarks made during preaching by one of the mosque’s imams, who has since been suspended, who was speaking on a voluntary basis”. The “Espoir et Fraternité” association has “always fought terrorism, has always promoted living together.”
Mosque in Beauvais
The mosque in Beauvais is one of the largest most prominent Islamic places of worship in northern France. A place that most consider sacred and the community is left wondering what they will use during the holy month.
But French authorities are determined to send a message to the Muslim community, you are either with us or against us.
But the interior ministry refutes that, saying the man “presented as an occasional speaker but who, in reality, acts as a regular imam”, had made remarks that “glorify jihad and the fighters, whom he describes as heroes”.
He is also said to have defended “a rigorist practice of Islam” and “its superiority to the laws of the Republic”.
In addition, his remarks chastised “miscreants and present Western societies as Islamophobic”, the ministry said. The remarks also urged “the faithful to break with the Republic”, according to the authorities.
Every Mosque in France is being investigated
French authorities have closed over 25 mosques following the adoption of a controversial separatism law that came into force in late August. every mosque in France is being investigated in what most French political commentators call a which hunt!
There is a total of 2,620 Muslim places of worship across France.
“Of these 99, 21 have been closed, and 6 are currently in the process of being closed,” Darmanin said.
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