“There is no place…in France for those who call for and incite hatred in prayer halls or in mosques, and who don’t respect certain republican principles, notably equality between men and women,” Bernard Cazeneuve said following a meeting with leaders of the French Council of the Muslim Religion on Monday, as quoted by AFP.
“That is why I took the decision a few months ago to close mosques through the state of emergency, legal measures or administrative measures. About 20 mosques have been closed, and there will be others,” he continued.
Cazeneuve went on to state that 80 people have been expelled from France since 2012, and that dozens more deportations are on the way, without providing further details.
There are some 2,500 mosques and prayer halls in France. Of those, around 120 are considered to be preaching radical Salafism, a strict Sunni interpretation of Islam.
It comes after recent terrorist attacks in the country have raised questions about security failures, as well as the foreign funding of many mosques. Source
