A mosque in northern France has been closed due to sermons “inciting hatred”, “violence” and “condoning jihad,” authorities said on Tuesday. The Beauvais mosque, a town of 50,000 inhabitants located 100 km north of Paris, will remain closed “for a period of six months”, according to the order of the prefecture of Oise. “This decree is enforceable after 48 hours,” said the prefecture.
The suspended imam
This decision comes after the announcement on December 14 by the French Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin, of the launch of the procedure for the administrative closure of this mosque due to the radical nature of the sermons given there.
The authorities “reproach” the place of worship “certain remarks made in the context of sermons by one of the imams of the mosque, who intervened on a voluntary basis”, explained Me Samim Bolaky, lawyer for the association Espoir et fraternité which manages the place. He assures us that this imam has since been “suspended”.
This man, “presented as an occasional speaker, but who in reality acts as an appointed imam” would, according to the Ministry of the Interior, make remarks making “the apology for jihad and the combatants, whom he describes as heroes”.
A hundred places of worship suspected of separatism controlled
According to the ministry, his words “castigate” the “disbelievers and present Western societies as Islamophobic”. They push “the faithful to break with the Republic” and “incite hatred of homosexuals, Jews and Christians”.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, 2,623 mosques and prayer rooms are established in France. Among these places of worship, 99 “suspected of separatism” have been checked “in recent months”.
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”. In addition to the Beauvais mosque, five “are the subject of an instruction which will make it possible to initiate a closure, in particular on the basis of the separatism law”.