The French government has ordered the closure of the Great Mosque of Beauvais in northern France for six months due to the imam’s radical sermons defending jihad and inciting violence and hatred.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said he introduced the motion on December 14 to initiate the administrative closure of the Beauvais mosque due to unacceptable preachings against Christians, Jews, and homosexuals. An official document citing the reasons for the closure, stated, “The terrorist threat remains at a very high level, and the closure had the aim of forestalling acts of terrorism being committed.”
Samim Bolaky, the lawyer for the “Espoir et Fraternité” (Hope and Fraternity), a non-governmental organisation that runs the mosque, said he has appealed against the decision in the administrative court in Amiens. Bolaky added that the administration is targeting specific comments by the imam who was speaking voluntarily and has since been suspended. He argued that the organisation preaches against terrorism and promotes harmony.
However, Interior Minister Darmanin refuted Bolaky’s claims, saying that the man showcased as a voluntary speaker is, in reality, a regular imam who made comments glorifying jihad and referred to jihadists as heroes. The Minister also said that the imam defended “a rigorist practice of Islam and its superiority to the laws of the Republic.” Furthermore, Darmanin said the imam criticised “miscreants and current Western societies as Islamophobic” and also urged “the faithful to break with the Republic.”
Authorities were legally bound to launch a 10-day period of information-gathering before taking action, but the mosque will now be shut within two days.
In February, France adopted an anti-separatism law to crack down on online hate speech and foreign funding of religious groups. The legislation provides a means for the country to fight Islamic radicalism but has been criticised for defaming the Muslim community. Since adopting the law, French authorities have closed down at least 25 mosques. There are a total of 2,620 Muslim places of worship across the country. Of these, 99 mosques are suspected of radicalism and being controlled by authorities. Of these 99, 21 mosques have been closed, and six are in the process of being closed.
The crackdown on Muslim places of worship and associations suspected of disseminating radical Islamic propaganda came after the murder of Samuel Paty, a history teacher, in October 2020. Paty was targeted following an online campaign against him for showing Prophet Mohammed’s caricatures published by the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in class. In addition, three people were stabbed in a Cathedral in Nice the same month, and their deaths were blamed on Islamic extremists.
Someone defaced the plaque honoring a teacher who was beheaded for leading a class discussion on freedom of expression that included showing the cartoons that prompted Charlie Hebdo attack. https://t.co/qoXDYbsyO0
— Dug Begley (@DugBegley) December 21, 2021
Back in 2015, Chérif and Said Kouachi stormed the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and killed twelve people, including eight journalists and four cartoonists, for publishing the caricatures of Prophet Mohammed. The brothers reportedly shouted that they had “avenged the Prophet” as they fled the scene. Additionally, in 2011, the newspaper’s offices were firebombed for publishing cartoons of Prophet Mohammed.
France first courted controversy with the Muslim community in the country back in 2010, when the government introduced a ban on the niqabs, burqas, and other full face veils in public.