Gérald Darmanin announces to close a mosque in Cannes

"We are closing one of the mosques in Cannes," announced Gérald Darmanin this Wednesday morning on CNews.

The Minister of the Interior explains that the religious establishment is accused of "anti-Semitic remarks, support for CCIF (Editor's note. Collective against Islamophobia in France) and Barakacity".

According to the member of the government, the mayor of Cannes David Lisnard “courageously” supports this decision. “We say to the vast majority of Muslims in France that we do not want to leave them hostage to the Islamists”, adds he.

99 establishments suspected of separatism

The "Islamist" associations, according to the minister, CCIF and BarakyCity were dissolved in the wake of the assassination of Samuel Paty in October 2020.

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 Ministry of the Interior, in December, 2,623 mosques and prayer rooms were established on the national territory and among these places of worship, "99 were suspected of separatism".

All have "been checked over the past few months."

"For 36 places of worship, the checks made it possible to demonstrate that the law of the Republic was strictly observed there, for example following a change of imam or of associative governance", indicated the ministry.

In addition, "21 places of worship are currently closed, due to administrative regulations, a court decision, a lease takeover, work or an administrative closure", six "are subject to a instruction which will make it possible to initiate a closure, in particular on the basis of the separatism law ”.

Five were "the subject of an instruction" for a 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 around 400 faithful, whom 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 faithful, which was closed for six months by prefectural decision because it was suspected of legitimizing armed jihad or terrorism during its sermons.