THE GUARDIAN: Interior minister says any found to be ‘breeding grounds of terrorism’ will be shut
France’s interior minister has announced a crackdown on 76 mosques that the government suspects of “separatism” and encouraging extremism.
Gérald Darmanin said the mosques would be inspected and any found to be “breeding grounds of terrorism” would be shut.
The move is part of the French government’s ongoing campaign to combat Islamist extremism after a series of terrorist attacks – including the recent beheading of a teacher and the killing of three people in a church in Nice – but has led to accusations it is unjustly targeting the wider Muslim community.
The president, Emmanuel Macron, has strenuously denied that new legislation to reinforce secularism that he outlined at the beginning of October was targeting Muslims. He said the law, under which France would train imams and impose a wider ban on home schooling and controls on religious, sporting and cultural associations, was aimed at tackling radical “Islamist separatism”. » | Kim Willsher in Paris | Thursday, December 3, 2020
