(Lille) Founded 20 years ago in the wake of the ban on the veil in schools, Averroès, the first Muslim high school under contract in France, is now in the hot seat, with the State considering ceasing to finance it, an outcome of growing distrust towards this establishment which has become popular.
A “consultation commission for private education” meets Monday at the prefecture to examine the association contract, signed in 2008, under which National Education pays the teachers of this high school located in Lille (north) and the Region extracurricular staff.
Since 2019, local authorities have refused to pay the subsidy provided for as part of this contract with the State, criticizing Averroès in particular for a Qatari donation of 950,000 euros in 2014.
“We believe that the contract was not respected,” proclaims Xavier Taquet, chief of staff to the President of the Region Xavier Bertrand, who is calling on National Education to check whether Qatar has requested compensation.
This same payment is also highlighted in a recent report from the Regional Court of Auditors, which more generally criticizes the high school for a lack of transparency regarding its donors.
Other complaints from the Court: governance irregularities, as well as the mention of a book advocating the death penalty for apostasy or gender segregation in the bibliography of a Muslim ethics course.
The prefecture, contacted, did not wish to comment.
“Values of the Republic”
Implicitly pointed out is the historical link between Averroès and the Muslims of France (ex-UOIF), an organization resulting from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood movement.
“These links are old but never intervene in the functioning of the establishment, I am the guarantor”, swears the head of establishment Eric Dufour, former teacher in the Catholic private sector.
Recruitment? “We are doing the complete opposite,” annoys an ethics teacher, Hela Khmosi. “We call on them to think for themselves, we give them tools to analyze and decide for themselves. »
The teacher assures that the students never had the incriminated book in hand, a bibliographical choice that Mr. Dufour recognizes as unfortunate.
“Nothing” allows us to think “that teaching practices […] do not respect the values of the Republic,” National Education ruled in a 2020 report.
With more than 800 students, including 400 under contract, Averroès remains by far the largest of the six Muslim establishments under contract in France. Only high school is recognized, not middle school.
The idea of creating a Muslim high school dates back to 1994, when 19 young girls were excluded from a public high school in Lille for refusing to remove their veil to go to class, despite the Bayrou circular banning “ostentatious religious signs”.
“Muslim elite”
The Averroès high school opened in September 2003 with around fifteen students in the premises of the mosque in the popular district of Lille-Sud, with the support of the UOIF.
The objective is to create a “Muslim elite”, according to Bernard Godard, a former senior civil servant and specialist in Islam. “They followed the model of French private Catholic establishments, which aim for excellence”, and “separate teaching from religion”.
With a 98% success rate for the baccalaureate, the establishment will still appear at the top of the weekly weekly rankings in 2023, based on National Education data.
Since 2012, it has had its own premises: in the teachers’ room, teachers of different faiths coexist, some veiled, others not.
During breaks, students can meditate in a prayer room – but there is no question of interrupting classes to go there.
In the class, almost as many boys as girls, half of whom are veiled.
The veil at school, “it’s a plus”, recognizes Djied Romayssa, second year student, but not its main motivation. “Here, there are teachers who will encourage me to succeed. »
Aymen Boutahr arrived in Secondary School, after seeing the academic success of his sister, who initially attended school there to “support the cause of Muslim high schools”. But “now it has become a quality high school,” he says. “We no longer come mainly for this cause. »