France closes a dozen mosques for encouraging radicalism
France has closed nine mosques in recent weeks as part of the operation to combat separatism and Jihadist radicalism that appears to be linked to the break with the values of the French Republic, the French interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, announced on Saturday.
The religious centres have been closed to Muslim believers for "administrative" reasons and for "failure to comply with security regulations". Eight of the facilities were closed for administrative reasons.
"Of the 18 places of worship that were specially guarded at my request, nine could be closed," the French interior minister tweeted on Friday, adding that the executive is taking decisive action against Islamist separatism. It was Darmanin himself who announced on 2 December a "mass action" to control "76 mosques".
Gérald Darmanin referred to the closure of these mosques before the start of the parliamentary debate on the bill "confirming the republican principles".
These Muslim religious centres are located in Montmagny, Goussainville (Val-d'Oise), Thiers (Puy-de-Dôme), Villeneuve-Saint-Georges (Val-de-Marne) and Pré-Saint-Gervais (Seine-Saint-Denis), according to some French media and confirmed to the AFP agency by sources close to the minister Darmanin, which confirmed a report given by the newspaper Le Figaro.
Three other mosques were closed "for various reasons", added the minister's entourage. In particular in Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis) where a closure order was taken for a room that had been "reconstituted", as well as in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis) for an "undeclared room". Other mosques, in Lunel (Hérault) and Marseille, have also been subject to "legal proceedings" and "tax audits".
In total, "34 controls" have been carried out in recent weeks in Muslim places of worship, according to sources close to Darmanin.
The minister includes in his account the Pantin mosque, which was closed in November for six months, particularly for having broadcast a video relating to Samuel Paty before his murder by an Islamist radical of Chechen origin who beheaded him because the teacher showed images of Muhammad in a class at his school on freedom of expression. An attack that joins other terrorist actions on French territory linked to radical Jihadism.
The draft law "ratifying respect for the principles of the Republic", also known as the law against separatism, will be submitted to the deputies from Monday onwards in a special committee of the National Assembly, before a debate in the chamber on 1 February.
The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, announced this initiative after the murder of Professor Samuel Paty on 16 October last, after he showed cartoons of Mohammed in class to give a lesson on freedom of expression to his students.
The law that is beginning to be debated in Parliament this month seeks to put an end to what Macron called "Islamist separatism", which, as the president pointed out, jeopardises the country's republican values. The new legislation will protect public employees from pressure from Islamists and ensure that secularism is respected. The French government intends to train "republican imams" who will receive their religious education in France and will subscribe to the values of the French Republic.