French Interior Minister: Around 76 more mosques to be closed in France

• Around 76 mosques, accused of ‘separatism’, are to be closed in France.
• Migrants from Muslim-majority countries have also been deported.

The French government instigated a “massive and unprecedented” wave of measures to combat what it calls religious “extremism,” targeting 76 mosques suspected of “separatism.”

76 mosquées sont aujourd’hui soupçonnées de séparatisme.
Dans les prochains jours, des contrôles vont être menés sur ces lieux de culte.
Si jamais ces doutes sont confirmés, je demanderai leur fermeture. pic.twitter.com/Mq8DGnB2Pr

— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) December 3, 2020

The French Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, tweeted his interview with RTL radio on Thursday, writing: “In the advancing days, checks will be carried out on these places of worship. If ever these doubts are established, I’ll demand their closure.”

Sur les 231 étrangers en situation irrégulière fichés pour radicalisation :
– 66 ont été expulsés
– 46 sont en centre de rétention administrative
– 30 sont assignés à résidence
– 5 sont incarcérés pic.twitter.com/AMTwEgm8RU

— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) December 3, 2020

He also said 66 undocumented Muslim migrants suspected of “radicalization” had been deported.

President Emmanuel Macron’s government has responded to various terrorist attacks in recent weeks with a vow to crack down on what Darmanin has expressed as “the enemy within.”

76 mosquées sont aujourd’hui soupçonnées de séparatisme.
Dans les prochains jours, des contrôles vont être menés sur ces lieux de culte.
Si jamais ces doutes sont confirmés, je demanderai leur fermeture. pic.twitter.com/Mq8DGnB2Pr

— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) December 3, 2020

Darmanin said 76 mosques out of the more than 2,600 Muslim places of worship had been flagged as potential threats to France’s Republican values and security.

“There are in some concentrated places of worship which are clearly anti-Republican where imams are followed by the intelligence services and where the discourse runs against our values,” he said.

The inspections to be carried out are part of a response to two attacks that particularly appalled France – the beheading of a teacher who showed his students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) and the stabbing to death of three people in a church in Nice.

Darmanin did not reveal which places of worship would be inspected.

In a note he sent to local security chiefs and seen by the AFP news agency, he listed 16 addresses in the Paris region and 60 others around the state.

Meanwhile, the minister said that only a fraction of the 2,600 Muslim places of worship in France were suspected of advocating radical theories. He said the information showed “we’re far from a situation of widespread radicalization.”

“Nearly all Muslims in France observe the laws of the Republic and are hurt by that,” he said.

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