France has authorized the closure of a mosque in the north of the country because of the “radical nature” of its imam’s preaching, regional authorities stated on Tuesday. The mosque in Beauvais which is located in a town of 50,000 people some 100 kilometers north of Paris, will continue to remain shut for six months, as per the prefecture of the Oise area. The authorities asserted the sermons there provoked hatred, violence and “defended jihad”. The verdict about the mosque, which has a congregation of about 400, came after two weeks of Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin saying he had hastened the procedure to close the site because the imam there “is targeting Christians, homosexuals, and Jews” in his sermons. This, the minister announced, was “unacceptable”. Local authorities were lawfully bound to observe 10 days of information-gathering before taking action but announced on Tuesday that the mosque would immediately be shut within two days. Local daily Courrier Picard noted this month that the mosque’s imam was a new convert to Islam.
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A lawyer for the association overseeing the mosque said that it had filed for an injunction to reverse the ban. The lawyer, Samim Bolaky, announced there would be a court hearing on the appeal within 48 hours. The authorities asserted the imam, who the association claims had preached only periodically and had now been suspended, was a usual presence at the mosque, as per the official document citing the reasons for the closure. It said the imam had called the jihad which is a term for war against the enemies of Islam, a “duty”, and had “glorified” its fighters as “heroes” who safeguarded Islam against Western impact. He had also called non-Muslims as “enemies”, it stated.
