Suspected Of Inciting Hatred And Violence, A Mosque In Northern France Closed For Six Months

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin. (Wikimedia Commons/Jacques Paquier)

JAKARTA - A mosque in northern France has been ordered closed for six months on suspicion of inciting violence, adding to the list of closed mosques in the country.

The Oise Prefectural Department said the large mosque in Beauvais was closed for "inciting hatred, violence and an apology for jihad," citing Euronews December 28.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced on December 14 that he had "initiated" the procedure for the administrative closure of the mosque because of "unacceptable sermons against Christians, homosexuals, and Jews."

Lawyers for the NGO "Espoir et Fraternité" ("Hope and Brotherhood"), which runs the Samim Bolaky mosque, told AFP he had appealed to the administrative court in Amiens against this decision.

Bolaky said authorities targeted "certain statements made during a sermon by one of the mosque's imams, who has since been suspended - who spoke voluntarily".

He underlined that the association "Espoir et Fraternité" has "always been fighting terrorism and has always promoted living together in harmony among people.

But the Interior Ministry denied, saying the man "presented as an occasional speaker, but in fact, acts as a regular imam, had made statements that "glorified jihad and its fighters, whom he described as heroes".

In addition, he is also said to have defended "strict Islamic practices" and "its superiority over Republican law". In addition, his statement condemned "criminals and presented Western society as Islamophobic", the ministry said.

Illustration of a mosque in France. (Wikimedia Commons/LPLT)

The statement also urged "the faithful to sever ties with the Republic", according to authorities.

To note, French authorities have ordered the closure of more than 25 mosques following the adoption of a controversial separatism law, which came into effect at the end of August.

Darmanin told the LCI news channel earlier this month that over the past six months 99 mosques suspected of being linked to radicalism have been controlled by the authorities.

Meanwhile, France is known to have a total of about 2.620 Muslim places of worship spread throughout its territory.

"Of the 99, 21 have been closed, and 6 are in the process of closing," said Minister Darmanin.

"We also found 36 of these mosques had accepted Republican demands, either to leave certain federations, or to secede from imams we deem dangerous, or to stop foreign funding, or unfortunately to incorporate these provisions, so we removed them from the list," he explained.

Several associations have also been dissolved since the law was enacted, including la Ligue de Defense Noire Africaine, which describes itself as a "revolutionary movement to defend the rights of Afrodescendants and Africa", the publisher Nawa Center d'Etudes Orientales et de Traduction, accused of legitimizing jihad, and the right-wing Alvarium group, for inciting hatred.