FRANCE TO INSPECT CLOSE TO 80 MOSQUES IN COMING DAYS

Thu 03 December 2020:

The French government will launch a “massive and unprecedented” wave of measures to combat religious extremism, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has said.

Darmanin said on Wednesday that state services will be monitoring and controlling 76 Muslim places of worship, 16 in the Paris region and 60 in the rest of France, and that some of these mosques may be shut down. Of the mosques, 18 will be targeted by “immediate actions” at Darmanin’s request.

Conformément à mes instructions, les services de l’Etat vont lancer une action massive et inédite contre le séparatisme.
👉 76 mosquées soupçonnées de séparatisme vont être contrôlées dans les prochains jours et celles qui devront être fermées le seront.https://t.co/0R3RQ2zFoi

— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) December 2, 2020

According to the Le Figaro newspaper, Darmanin sent a circular to the country’s governors on the inspection of the mosques.

Following the murder of teacher Samuel Paty in a Paris suburb in October, raids and pressure on Muslim associations and mosques have increased.

Darmanin said on Nov. 3 that 43 mosques have been closed in the last three years since President Emmanuel Macron took office.

France is home to the largest population of Muslims in Europe and Islam is the second-largest religion practiced in the country after Catholicism.

The international community was shocked by the knifing of two people outside the former offices of French weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo in September, the beheading of Paty on October 16 and the brutal killing of three people inside Nice’s Notre Dame Basilica on October 29.

The attacks prompted French officials to find a scapegoat and Muslims were targeted.

President Macron’s government has responded to several deadly terror attacks in recent weeks with a promise to crack down on what some public officials have called “the enemy within.”

Critics say Macron’s government is exploiting the spate of violence to intensify his controversial anti-Muslim stance.