French Court Overturns Closure of Pessac Mosque Accused of Extremism

The Al Farouk mosque in Pessac has prevailed. The Council of State rejected on Tuesday, April 26, the appeal of the Ministry of the Interior, which was demanding its temporary closure, reports France Bleu. The Gironde prefecture had ordered on March 14 the six-month closure of this mosque because it accused it of spreading "a Salafist ideology". But the leaders of the place of worship had referred the matter to the interim relief judge in Bordeaux, who had suspended the prefectural decree. Dissatisfied, the Ministry of the Interior had, on March 24, appealed this decision before the Council of State.

"The prefect of Gironde has taken a police measure that seriously and manifestly illegally infringes on the freedom of worship," the institution said in its order of April 26. For the Council of State, the Pessac mosque has indeed published on the internet texts that "encourage identity withdrawal and challenge the principle of secularism", but "these publications do not, given their content and in the circumstances of the case, have a character of incitement to violence, hatred or discrimination".

Sefen Guez Guez, lawyer for the Rassemblement des Musulmans de Pessac association, expressed his satisfaction. "This victory puts an end to a procedure initiated in February 2022 against the Pessac mosque and will set a precedent. It will mark a step back on the sequence of mosque closures that have followed one another in recent months under the Macron government," he rejoiced, stating that "nothing in the file presented by the Ministry of the Interior allows the Pessac mosque to be linked to the incitement to commit terrorist acts".