the great mosque of Beauvais closed for six months for sermons “inciting to hatred” and “making the apology of jihad”

The prefecture of Oise has ordered the closure of the great mosque of Beauvais for a period of six months, in particular because of sermons “inciting hatred”, “to violence” and “advocating jihad”. This decree “is enforceable after 48 hours”, said the prefecture of Oise to AFP. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced on December 14 that he had “triggered“the administrative closure procedure of this mosque. Samim Bolaky, lawyer for the Hope and Fraternity association, which manages this mosque, told AFP that he had appealed to the Amiens administrative court against this decision.

The place of worship itself had closed its doors several days ago in order to “to protect its faithful from the journalists who congregated”, according to Samim Bolaky, interviewed by France 3 Hauts-de-France. The socio-cultural association Hope and Fraternity (Ascef) had simply reopened the doors of the mosque on December 22, for an afternoon. She had specified that the imam accused of inciting hatred and defending jihad had “been suspended ” and that he “was not intended to intervene today or in the next few days“.

According to the Interior Ministry, this man, “presented as an occasional speaker but who, in reality, acts as an appointed imam”, would have said something “the apology for jihad and the fighters, whom he describes as heroes”. He would also have defended “a rigorous practice of Islam” and “its superiority over the laws of the Republic”. In addition, his words “castigate” the “disbelievers and present western societies as Islamophobic”, had detailed the ministry. They grow “the faithful to break with the Republic” and “incite hatred of homosexuals, Jews and Christians”.