The rector of the great mosque of Pantin in Seine-Saint-Denis M'hammed Henniche announced this Sunday that he had resigned in order to allow the early reopening of the mosque nearly five months after its closure in the wake of the assassination of Professor Samuel Paty.
Saturday, "
I presented my resignation to the board of directors of the mosque which chose a new president Mr. Dramé Abderrahman
", declared to AFP Mr. Henniche, head of the Muslim Federation of Pantin since 2013 and recently re-elected.
To read also: Samuel Paty: the imam of Pantin continued to preach in Bobigny
This mosque of about 1300 faithful was closed for six months on October 21 by the prefect, on the instruction of the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin.
In question, the relay on the Facebook page of the place of worship of the video of a father of a student, who had been at the origin of the gear that led to the assassination of Samuel Paty, and the presence of an imam trained in Yemen and accused by the authorities of being "
involved in the Islamist movement
".
Since this sanction and the failure of two legal remedies, the Minister of the Interior and the Prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis, Georges-François Leclerc, had conditioned any early reopening of the mosque, before the start of Ramadan ( mid-April), at the departures of M'hammed Henniche and Imam Ibrahim Doucouré, however already dismissed.
The prefect had also withdrawn in November to the association which manages the mosque its religious character, on the grounds that its activities had "
violated public order
", according to a letter consulted by AFP.
This measure rendered null and void the allocation by the city of Pantin of an emphyteutic lease for the construction of the future great mosque, financed to the tune of nearly one million euros by donations from the faithful.
Read also: At the Pantin mosque, the faithful contest the closing decree posted on the gates
Mr. Henniche, who has always denied the Islamist leanings attributed to him by the government, has resolved to resign to “
save the emphyteutic lease of the new mosque
” and so “
that the faithful can find their mosque
”, the reopening of which is scheduled. to April 15.
A 50-year-old Muslim conservative, Mr. Henniche, an entrepreneur by profession, was for twenty years a privileged interlocutor of the public authorities, including Nicolas Sarkozy when he was president.
He retains his duties as Secretary General of the Union of Muslim Associations of Seine-Saint-Denis (UAM 93).
