Montpellier Mayor Opposes Transfer of City’s Largest Mosque to Moroccan Control

At a time when the "bill strengthening secularism and republican principles" is causing tensions, the project to transfer the Averroès grand mosque of La Paillade, the largest in the city, to the Union of Mosques of France (UMF) very close to Morocco, is not to the liking of the mayor.

"My position is clear, it is not up to a foreign state to take control of places of worship. How would a foreign state come to replace the people of Montpellier. In the spirit of the 1905 law, it is up to the faithful to take charge of their management," hammered Mr. Delafosse. The place of worship is located within the perimeter of the ongoing ANRU rehabilitation operation in the La Paillade district. "We are defining the development programs that we want to carry out there," specified the elected official.

Lhoussine Tahri, head of Averroès, tries to justify the transfer operation for 1 symbolic euro. "First there is the management, there are too many charges. Operating expenses are 5,000 euros per month not counting the imam’s salary. Since March and the health crisis, the faithful are less present, there is less income but a mosque, it has to run. [...] We need funds. The roof needs to be redone, that’s 150,000 euros," he explained.

This project follows a buyback process with deadlines of this place of worship formerly on a long-term lease between the city and the management association of the place. The Domains Department had set the sale price at 1.2 million euros. A fund that the faithful had committed to mobilize. The final acquisition of the building will take place in June 2019, a year before the last deadline set by the city.

This project recalls the transfer of the Abou-Bakr-Essedik mosque in Angers to Morocco. "What is happening in Montpellier is happening elsewhere. In France, we are asking for the neutrality of the State and there, a foreign state would come to interfere in the religious affairs of our country? It is an interference, we must say stop," he criticized, stressing that his decision will be to pre-empt in an attempt to prevent this transfer.