French Mosque Forced Closed for ‘Inciting Hatred’ and ‘Advocating Jihad’

A Mosque in France has been shuttered for six months after authorities accused it of ‘inciting hatred’ and ‘advocating jihad’.

The great mosque of Beauvais has been ordered to close for six months over sermons that authorities claim were ‘inciting hatred’, ‘violence’ and ‘advocating jihad’.

The order, announced on Tuesday, is to become enforceable after 48hrs, though the lawyer for the mosque was said to be seeking interim relief against the order.

According to a report by Le Monde, French Minister for the Interior Gérald Darmanin first announced that measures were being taken to close the mosque on December 14th.

“We have initiated the closure of the Beauvais mosque, [which is] completely unacceptable, which fights Christians, homosexuals and Jews,” Darmanin said.

This is far from the first time France has shut a mosque over its preaching, with a number being closed last October over their teachings.

While the lawyer for the Beauvais mosque, Samim Bolaky, admitted that “certain remarks” were made by one imam, he claims that the preacher in question has since been suspended, and that the mosque has “always fought terrorism” and “has always favoured living together”.

“It is a respectable mosque,” Bolaky went on to say.

The reportedly suspended imam is accused of promoting jihad as a “duty”, as well as defending “a rigorous and radical practice of Islam and the superiority of religious rules over those of positive law with regard to which he legitimizes disobedience”, according to Le Monde‘s report.

Ultimately, the preacher supposedly advocated for Muslims to “break with the Republic” and to go “so far as to set up non-Muslims as enemies”.

According to the paper, he has also been accused of calling for “hatred” and “discrimination against certain categories of people, such as Jews, Christians, or homosexuals”.

The order to close the mosque comes as a number of French Muslim groups have agreed to sign on to a new government charter, and by extension commit to shirking foreign influence and political Islam within the country.

Three Islamic federations have agreed to sign on to the “Charter of Principles of Islam of France”, after resisting doing so for at least a year.

The document is part of President Emmanuel Macron’s attempt to reform Islam within France, a goal Macron has spoken of since 2018.

Some groups however had previously taken issues with some terminology within the document, such as “Islam of France”, as well as with “extremely problematic” definitions of political Islam, which some worry will criminalise “religious practices that are part of the common foundation of Islam and which are guaranteed by the Constitution”.

Meanwhile, a fourth group — the French Council of Muslim Worship (CFCM) — which refused to sign up to the charter, has been declared “dead” by French authorities.

“Today the CFCM, that is to say, the representation of consular Islam – Moroccans, Algerians – is dead. The CFCM, for the public authorities, for the French Republic, no longer exists, is no longer the interlocutor of the Republic,” Interior Minister Darmanin said.