French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has announced the closure of Al Madina Al Mounawara, a mosque in Cannes, over anti-Semitic remarks.
According to the report by AFP, the Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced the closure of Al Madina Al Mounawara which has been in existence for 25years, on Wednesday morning.
“We are closing one of the mosques in Cannes because we blame it for anti-Semitic remarks, support for CCIF (Collective against Islamophobia in France, editor’s note) and Barakacity, Islamists that we have closed, we have dissolved these associations”, said Gérald Darmanin on CNEWS.
The Minister of the Interior affirms that the mayor of Cannes David Lisnard “courageously” supports this decision.
In a press release, the Cannes city hall specified that it was the Al-Madina Al-Mounawara mosque, a place open for 25 years on private land located in the city centre, avenue du Petit Juas.
“This decision comes after careful research work by the State services and multiple reports made by the municipality of Cannes since 2015”, indicates the municipality.
“70 radicalized places of worship”
In addition, the minister indicated that of the “more than 2,500 Muslim places of worship”, there were “70 radicalized places of worship”. According to the Interior Ministry, France has 2,623 mosques and Muslim prayer rooms.
Of this total, “21 places of worship are currently closed, due to administrative regulations, a court decision, a lease takeover, work or an administrative closure”, according to figures dating from the end of December. Five were “the subject of an instruction” for possible closure, including that of Cannes.
At the end of December, the courts confirmed the closure of the Beauvais mosque for sermons by an imam, notably defending armed jihad.
The prefect of Oise had ordered a few days earlier the closure within 48 hours of this mosque, welcoming some 400 faithful – that the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, had accused in mid-December of attacking the “republican model and France “.
At the end of October, it was the Allonnes mosque, near Le Mans, welcoming around 300 worshipers, which was closed for six months by prefectural decision because it was suspected of legitimizing armed jihad or terrorism during its sermons.