France to Investigate Dozens of Mosques Suspected of ‘Separatism’

France will on Thursday start investigating dozens of mosques suspected of fomenting Islamist ideology to combat the rising threat of religious extremism, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

The government has launched what it calls an unprecedented action against “separatism” following several Islamist attacks in France this autumn, including the beheading of a teacher who had shown his class caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad.

Darmanin said 76 mosques out of the more than 2,600 Muslim places of worship had been flagged as possible threats to France’s Republican values and its security. Where suspicions are confirmed, the mosque will be closed down, he said.

“There are in some concentrated areas places of worship which are clearly anti-Republican,” Darmanin told RTL radio, “(where) imams are followed by the intelligence services and where the discourse runs counter to our values.”

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