France closes new mosque after accusing its imam of extremism
WORLD, Sept. 29 (YPA) – The French Interior Ministry closed a mosque, after accusing the mosque’s imam of extremism and hostility to French society, according to local press reports.
The ministry accused the mosque’s imam of carrying out extremist activities, taking an anti-French position and making provocative comments against “the values of the republic.”
For his part, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said yesterday – in a tweet on Twitter with a link to the news published by Le Figaro – that the fight against what he called “Islamic separatism” continues at the behest of the President of the Republic.
He added that the authorities closed 23 places of worship belonging to the “separatists” – as he described it – over two years.
The French Interior Ministry claimed that many of the young people attending the mosque had become “extremists” and that some had “left France to study in Quranic schools, in Egypt or in Yemen.”
The measure provides for a 10-day adversarial period, during which the association that runs the mosque can object to the closure decision, before a possible closure, which cannot exceed 6 months.
According to the Interior Ministry, France has 2,623 mosques and prayer rooms. 100 suspects were placed under surveillance, with a high probability of removing 30 of them. The rest, about 50 places of worship, remain under the ministry’s supervision.
E.M