The carpets have been carefully placed on the floor in a large room as well as in a large adjoining courtyard while a shelf, installed outside, crumbles under hundreds of shoes of the faithful.
Then, after a hubbub, silence settles and it is around 1:20 p.m. this Friday that Imam Mazouzi's prayer, relayed by a loudspeaker, resounds in this gymnasium which houses the great mosque of Pantin, in Seine-Saint-Denis.
A litany that can be heard beyond the walls of this place of worship and which invades this modest district bristling with buildings built at the foot of car parks, lawns and a few local shops.
Read also: At the Pantin mosque, the faithful contest the closing decree posted on the gates
For this reopening day, after six months during which the site had to remain closed by decision of the Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin, many Muslims came.
Several hundred men, young and old, arrived at the end of the morning as well as a few women settling in a room reserved for them.
"Some
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