French interior ministry claims closures were due to \u2018a radical practice of Islam\u2019
\n PARIS
\nFor three years, Karim Daoud ran the mosque in this small town in northwest France. He also coached kids\u2019 soccer teams and for more than two decades has worked for the local council\u2019s youth services.
\nDaoud was among those who visited a nearby Catholic church to express solidarity following a deadly extremist attack at a church in southern France in 2020.
\nLast October, the interior ministry\u2019s local office gave the 46-year old a medal to recognise his long service as a public employee.
\nDays later, the local interior ministry office closed the mosque for six months, saying it was promoting \u201ca radical practice of Islam\u201d and \u201ccultivating a feeling of hate towards France,\u201d according to the closure order.
\nBut the mosque\u2019s representatives – who deny the allegations – say the government has provided scant public evidence about the grounds for that decision.
\nIt\u2019s one of a growing number of mosques closed by authorities using an array of powers that rights activists, international organisations – including the United Nations – and members of the Muslim community say give authorities carte blanche to close down places of worship without proper scrutiny and with procedures so opaque the case can\u2019t be overturned.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s Kafkaesque,\u201d said Fionnuala Ni Aolain, a UN special rapporteur on the protection of human rights while countering terrorism, of the legal procedures used in such cases, which can include evidence where the source isn\u2019t identified. \u201cThe flirtation with secretive evidence is in itself worrying, but it also breaches provisions in international treaties\u201d relating to the right to a fair trial and equality before the law, she said.
\nThe Elysee Palace declined to comment for this story. The interior ministry told Reuters that the government has strengthened the ability of authorities to prevent and combat terrorism over the past five years and that all the legal measures adopted were \u201cdone in full respect of the rule of law.\u201d The local interior ministry office declined to comment.
\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron, who came to power five years ago on a centrist platform, has toughened his stance on law and order \u2013 a hot-button issue in a country that has seen a series of deadly extremist attacks in recent years. Macron is running for re-election this week in a contest where he faces stiff competition from the right.
\nThe 44-year old president has implemented a raft of laws and measures aimed, he says, at tackling violent extremism and radicals who challenge France\u2019s secular values. But critics say Macron has given outsize powers to security forces and chipped away at democratic protections, leaving Muslims vulnerable to abuse.
\nMany Muslims now feel France – home to one of the largest Muslim populations in Europe – has become a more hostile place. Interior ministry data shows a sharp increase in anti-Muslim discriminatory and other acts in 2021, even as other faiths saw a decline.
\nMacron\u2019s government has touted the Allonnes mosque closure as a prime example of its crackdown on what it calls Islamism. French authorities have closed 22 mosques over the past 18 months, according to the interior ministry – which, according to a ministry official, was a marked increase from the combined total over the previous three years. It added authorities have investigated some 90 out France\u2019s total of roughly 2,500 Muslim places of worship on suspicions of spreading \u201cseparatist\u201d ideology, which the government says challenges France\u2019s secularism.
\nOn the Allonnes mosque, the interior ministry said authorities provided detailed evidence to the court to support the allegations and that the mosque\u2019s lawyers had the opportunity to challenge it, but were ultimately unsuccessful.
\nThe prosecutor\u2019s office told Reuters that there was an ongoing judicial investigation into whether leaders or members of the Allonnes mosque association were \u201cadvocating terrorism and inciting terrorism,\u201d without naming individuals. No charges have been filed, the prosecutor\u2019s office said.
\nDaoud, who had been the mosque association\u2019s president, says he has no links to violent extremism, either direct or indirect. Of the mosque\u2019s closure, he said \u201cfor me it\u2019s an injustice. It\u2019s a big disappointment with respect to our involvement\u201d with the town.
\nNabila Asmane, a lawyer representing the mosque\u2019s leaders, told Reuters that the interior ministry didn\u2019t provide sufficient evidence to substantiate the serious accusations it made as part of its case to close the mosque, that the government\u2019s case was based on false allegations and that the investigation hadn\u2019t been thorough. Asmane added: \u201cIt\u2019s not the lawyers that failed, but justice.\u201d
\nFrance\u2019s highest administrative court in November upheld the government\u2019s decision to close the mosque. In January, the government announced the mosque association\u2019s dissolution; an appeal by the mosque leaders in the same court – the Conseil d\u2019Etat – is still pending.
\nUnder the administrative procedures, such as those used with the Allonnes mosque, the closures are temporary. But some mosques don\u2019t re-open, according to rights activists and the interior ministry. The ministry didn\u2019t specify how many of the 22 mosques had reopened.
\nMacron faces the first round of the presidential election on Sunday, with a run-off scheduled for April 24 if no one wins a simple majority. The president is currently the favourite in opinion polls, but it could be a close race.
\nWhite memo\u2019
\nIn October 2017 – five months after Macron became president – the French parliament adopted a new anti-terrorism law that bolstered police surveillance powers and made it easier to close mosques suspected of preaching hatred, with limited judicial oversight. It replaced the state of emergency that had been imposed in late 2015 after militants killed 130 people in coordinated attacks across Paris.
\nMacron said at the time that \u201cjihadist terrorism\u201d remained the biggest security threat to France.
\nUnder the 2017 law, the interior ministry has the power to close places of worship for up to six months if there are suspicions that they are being used to propagate hate speech or incite violence, provoke acts of extremist violence or justify terrorist acts. Religious sites can appeal closures via France\u2019s administrative court system, which handles disputes between citizens and public bodies. Administrative proceedings typically don\u2019t involve witnesses being called.
\nIn Allonnes, in the suburbs of Le Mans, the mosque has for the last decade or so been based in a low-rise, nondescript, modern building. Some 250 people used to pray at the mosque, according to Daoud.
\nOn October 11, 2021, the local interior ministry\u2019s office notified the leaders of its plans to close the mosque, which it did two weeks later.
\nInterior minister Gerald Darmanin highlighted the government\u2019s move on social media. \u201cThe sermons preached in this mosque legitimised in particular the use of armed jihad while cultivating a feeling of hatred towards France,\u201d he said in an October 26 Twitter post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
French interior ministry claims closures were due to \u2018a radical practice of Islam\u2019 PARIS For three years, Karim Daoud ran the mosque in this small town in northwest France. He also coached kids\u2019 soccer teams and for more than two decades has worked for the local council\u2019s youth services. Daoud was among those who visited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n