France Starts Procedure to Close Mosque near Paris
France’s interior minister Gerald Darmanin claimed the sermons of the mosque had been “unacceptable” as the Imam had targeted Christians and Jews, Aljazeera reported.
Beauvais is a town located some 100 kilometers north of Paris.
Local officials say they will consider the decision to close the mosque for up to six months due to sermons that allegedly encouraged hate and violence.
Samim Blaki, a lawyer for the association that runs the mosque, says the accusations go back to statements made voluntarily by one of the mosque’s imams who was stopped from doing so later.
However, local officials say the imam is an occasional preacher who had earlier called for changing laws of the country, attacked Western societies that are hostile to Islam, and incited separation.
Blaki says the association has always defended the fight against terrorism and promoted peaceful coexistence.
According to the interior ministry, 99 mosques and Muslim prayer halls out of France’s total number of 2,623 have been investigated in recent months because they were suspected of spreading "separatist" ideology.
Of the total, 21 were currently shut for various reasons, and six were being probed with a view to closing them down on the basis of French laws.
