The French government has shut down a mosque in Beauvais over ‘radical sermons’ that allegedly ‘defended jihad’. The mosque will reportedly remain shut for the next six months.
The French authorities have been conducting checks on all Islamic places suspected to have some links to extremism.
According to a report published in the BBC, the imam of the mosque, located in the northern region of France, referred to jihadist fighters as “heroes” and incited violence.
“Man, who was presented as an occasional speaker but who, in reality, acts as a regular imam had defended a religious practice of Islam and its superiority to the laws of the Republic,” the BBC quoted an interior ministry official as saying.
Earlier, the interior minister of France, Gerald Darmanin had initiated the process of closing the mosque of Beauvais claiming the radical sermons targetted Christians, homosexuals and Jews.
