Gérald Darmanin announces having “closed” a mosque in Cannes

She had been the subject of “multiple reports” since 2015. The Al Madina Al Mounawara mosque, located in downtown Cannes, at 1 bis avenue du Petit Juas, has been “closed”, due in particular to “anti-Semitic remarks”. “We are closing one of the mosques in Cannes because we blame it for anti-Semitic remarks, for supporting the CCIF (Collective against Islamophobia in France, editor’s note) and BarakaCity“, dissolved at the end of 2020, said the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin, guest on Cnews, Wednesday January 12, after “to have spoken” with the mayor LR of Cannes and president of the AMF, David Lisnard.

“This decision comes after careful research work by the State services and multiple reports made directly by the municipality of Cannes since 2015”, indicated the town hall of the seaside town of the Côte d’Azur in a press release, relayed by France 3 PACA. “We know that the vast majority of Muslims who attend this very old mosque do not share its drift; some had also alerted us. (…) It is therefore up to the emergence of new leaders respectful of the French Republic and of the country so that the place of worship can then reopen. “

Associations “Islamists”, according to the boss of Beauvau, CCIF and BarakyCity were dissolved in the wake of the assassination of Samuel Paty in October 2020. In addition, Gérald Darmanin indicated that on the “more than 2,500 Muslim places of worship”, 2,623 mosques and prayer rooms listed by the Ministry of the Interior, there were “70 radicalized places of worship”.

Of this total, “21 places of worship are currently closed, due to administrative regulations, a court decision, a lease takeover, work or an administrative closure”, according to figures from the end of December. Five were “the subject of an instruction” with a view to possible closure, including the Al Madina Al Mounawara mosque in Cannes.

At the end of October 2021, the Allonnes mosque, near Le Mans, welcoming around 300 faithful, which was closed for six months by prefectural decision because it was suspected of legitimizing armed jihad or terrorism during its sermons. At the end of December, justice confirmed the closure of the Beauvais mosque for sermons from an imam The prefect of Oise had ordered a few days earlier the closure within 48 hours of this Muslim place of worship – welcoming some 400 faithful – that Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin accused in mid-December of attacking the “Republican model and France”.