The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the US’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, on Monday called on the State Department to denounce the move.

A French court has upheld the six-month closure of a mosque near Paris. Human rights lawyer Rafik Chekkat said the authorities based part of their case on imams “quoting…seven passages from the Quran and references to major works of the Islamic tradition….”

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In a statement, Washington, D.C.-based CAIR said:

“No government has the right to shut down a church, a synagogue, a mosque or any other house of worship for reading text from their faith’s holy book. Shutting down a mosque for preaching The Holy Quran is the definition of religious discrimination and persecution. We call on the State Department, which has repeatedly called for the protection of religious freedom, to condemn this reprehensible violation of liberty by the French government.”

CAIR has previously condemned Islamophobic incidents and policies in France.

Source: Cair.com