Beauvais Mosque President Condemns Ex-Imam’s Extremist Remarks, Supports Closure

Nordine Zinbi, in an interview with the newspaper Le Parisien, clearly and unambiguously condemned the "radicalized" remarks of Imam Eddy Lecocq. According to him, the closure of the place of worship, decided in December 2021 for six months, was "solely the responsibility of (the imam)".

In a press release, the prefecture of Oise had explained to have taken this decision because of the "sermons delivered" by the imam "which valorize jihad as a duty, by glorifying the fighters whom he qualifies as heroes, in the service of the protection of the Muslim religion which would be according to him threatened by Western societies". The prefect of Oise, Corinne Orzechowski, had accused the leaders of the Great Mosque of Beauvais "of not having shown any sign of their willingness to change things", of not having "condemned the remarks of the imam" and "of not (having) accepted to come under the status of the law of 1905".

The members of the association had appealed the state’s decision. An appeal simply rejected by the administrative court of Amiens two weeks after the closure. The leaders of the association had then terminated the functions of Imam Eddy Lecocq. The latter had filed a complaint at the end of January for "slanderous denunciation". According to his lawyer Me Sefen Guez Guez, he wants to clear his name in the face of "particularly serious and detrimental accusations to his honor".