France shuts mosque over Quran verses and Islamic texts used in Muslim worship
A French court has upheld the six-month closure of a mosque near Paris in a case that has raised fresh concerns over the state’s policing of Islamic belief and worship.
The Montreuil Administrative Court on Friday rejected an attempt to suspend the July order against the Chanteloup mosque in Aulnay-sous-Bois. The mosque will remain closed until January.
Rafik Chekkat, a human rights lawyer representing the mosque, questioned whether imams in France remained free to recite Islam’s sacred text.
“In France, can an imam still quote the Quran in the mosque where he preaches?” said Chekkat.
Chekkat said the authorities based part of their case on imams “quoting...seven passages from the Quran and references to major works of the Islamic tradition, such as The Garden of the Righteous and The Forty Hadiths.”
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
The major works in question form part of the body of work of the 13th-century Syrian scholar Imam al-Nawawi, who is widely regarded as one of the Muslim world’s most important thinkers.
“We will file an appeal before the Council of State to defend religious freedom, freedom of expression, and the principle of secularism,” he added.
The authorities also objected to sermons “evoking ‘hell’ and the ‘punishments of the grave’ reserved for ‘unbelievers’”, despite similar teachings forming part of religious preaching in churches and other places of worship.
Judges ruled that the prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis, Julien Charles, “did not commit a serious and manifestly illegal infringement of either the freedom of worship or the freedom of expression”.
“We are very disappointed by the decision and very surprised by its content. We will obviously go before the Council of State,” Chekkat told AFP, adding that parts of the ruling went “totally against religious freedom”.
“I understand that the administrative judge did not want to contradict the prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis, now I think that before the Council of State we will have a little more chance, it will be a little more legal and a little less political,” he said.
The decision follows years of expanding state pressure on Muslim institutions. French authorities closed 22 mosques in 18 months by April 2022, often using intelligence documents whose sources remained hidden.
The government has also dissolved Muslim organisations, including the Collective Against Islamophobia in France and the charity BarakaCity, deepening fears that France is using security laws to restrict Muslims’ freedom of belief.
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.
