The French government has announced it will be disbanding six mosques and a number of other associations that are accused of spreading radical Islamic propaganda.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced the closures of the six mosques earlier this week, noting that since investigations began in November of last year, the government had found that a third of the 89 places of religious worship under investigation had been scrutinised for radicalism so far.
Darmanin also stated that the six mosques set to be closed were not located in a single area but were in five different departments across the country, broadcaster Radio France Internationale reports.
Among the associations set for closure is the Islamic publishing house Nawa, based in the commune of Pamiers, which has been on the radar of Minister Darmanin for several weeks. Earlier this month, those around Darmanin stated that the publisher had distributed books that “legitimised jihad.”
The publishing house itself has stated that it has a “desire to promote the human and political sciences stemming from the Muslim heritage.” The assets of the association were also frozen earlier his month prior to the dissolution of the publisher.
The French Interior Minister also announced this week that the African Black Defence League (LDNA) association would also be dissolved by the government after claiming the group “spreads an ideology calling for hatred, discrimination and violence on the basis of origin, sexual orientation.”
The LDNA itself claims to be a “revolutionary movement for the defence of the rights of Afro-descendants and Africans” and has a large following on Facebook of around 300,000 people.
Since the murder of teacher Samuel Paty in October of last year by a radical Islamist refugee from Chechnya, the government of Emmanuel Macron has vowed to crack down on Islamist associations and radical mosques.
Macron has also promised to tackle what he has termed as Islamic separatism and political slam as a whole. A leaked document from last year revealed that as many as 150 neighbourhoods across France are”held” by Islamist radicals, according to the country’s domestic intelligence agency, the DGSI.