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Memorial service for Samuel Paty (on October 20): Action against alleged Islamists is tightened
Photo: CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT / AFP
The Samuel Paty case had caused horror in France but also internationally.
Around seven weeks after the French teacher was beheaded by an alleged Islamist, France's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced that 76 mosques would be examined.
In the "coming days" the authorities would launch a "massive and unprecedented action against separatism," the minister wrote on Wednesday on the online service Twitter.
As part of the campaign, mosques could also be closed, wrote Darmanin.
According to a report in the newspaper "Le Figaro", the ministry had already sent all prefectures a corresponding notification on November 27th.
The environment of the minister confirmed this.
Accordingly, 16 mosques in the Paris region and 60 in the rest of France are said to be affected.
The government in Paris has stepped up its crackdown on suspected Islamists in recent weeks and months.
On October 16, 47-year-old Paty was beheaded by an 18-year-old Russian of Chechen origin near his school in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.
As a direct reaction, a mosque near Paris was closed, which is said to have incited hatred.
Law is designed to protect teachers from hatred
In addition, France had launched a bill to fight Islamism, which is supposed to protect teachers from Islamist attacks and punish hate speeches on the Internet more severely.
Justice Minister Éric Dupond-Moretti said in mid-November that the law was under the motto: "Hands off my teacher, hands off the values of the republic."
With a so-called anti-coup regulation, the government also wants to prevent extremists from gaining control of mosques in France.
The financing of mosques from abroad, for example by Turkey and Saudi Arabia, should be more closely controlled.
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