Authorities in the Oise region announced that they were considering shutting the mosque for inciting violence and hatred.
A mosque in the northern part of France has been ordered to shut for six months for inciting violence, hatred, and apology of jihad.
France Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said he had launched the procedure to shut the mosque for six months because of imam’s preaching that targets Christians, homosexuals and Jews in his sermons.
The mosque is in the Oise region of Beauvais, which is 100 km to the north of Paris and has a population of around 50000. Authorities in the Oise region announced that they were considering shutting the mosque for inciting violence and hatred.
An official at the Oise prefecture told AFP that a letter had been sent last week announcing the plan, adding that a 10-day period of information-gathering was legally required before any action could be taken.
Local daily Courrier Picard reported this month that the mosque’s imam was a recent convert to Islam.
Samim Bolaky, a lawyer for Hope and Fraternity NGO, which runs the mosque, told AFP that he had appealed to the administrative court in Amiens against this decision. He 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 Interior Ministry refuted the lawyer’s remarks, 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.”
According to authorities, his remarks chastised “miscreants and present Western societies as Islamophobic”, the ministry said. The remarks also urged “the faithful to break with the Republic”.
Minister Darmanin announced this year that France would step up its checking against the places of worship and its associations suspected of spreading radical Islamic propaganda.
According to Interior Ministry, 99 mosques and Muslim prayer halls out of 2623 have been shut after investigation. While 21 have been shut for various reasons, six are under probe, intending to shut them down based on the French laws against extremism and Islamic separatism.
Courtesy : ORGANISER
