Officials, citing its anti-Jewish, anti-Christian and anti-LGBT agendas, have ordered the closure of a mosque in Beauvais, France, a report in Algemeiner documents.
The order comes from French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who was interviewed by French broadcaster C News and explained the teachings at the facility were “unacceptable.”
The mosque is some 50 miles outside of Paris.
“Today I initiated the closure of the Beauvais mosque, [because of its] unacceptable incitement against Christians, homosexuals, Jews,” Darmanin explained in the interview.
Under French law, the Bilal mosque in Beauvais now is being given 10 days to appeal the order that would place it under administrative closure for six months, the report said.
Darmanin explained he acted when local authorities confirmed they wanted the closure because of the “radical Islamist sermons” there.
“The prefecture of Oise called for the mosque to be temporar[ily] closed, citing sermons that promoted ‘hatred, violence and jihad,'” the report said.
A local report documented that the Muslim community there was left “in shock” by the decision, and a lawyer for the Islamic organization said the sermons that were cited as objectionable were “taken out of context.”
“He said that the imam had been referring in his sermons to ‘reported facts dating back more than 1,400 years, in particular on the first two main wars in the history of Islam,'” the report said.
Darmanin said the action is part of a bigger campaign against “separatism,” which focuses on extremism.
He said of the thousands of centers serving French Muslims, only 99 had been investigated and a total of 21 had been closed.
A think tank in Paris said since 2013, there have been 293 deaths resulting from 50 attacks in France by Islamist terrorists.
Religious rights activist Pam Geller noted, “If unacceptable incitement against Jews, Christians and gays is the basis for mosque closure, then the majority of mosques should be closed. It is central to Islam.”
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