Why the Interior ordered the closure of the Pantin mosque

The great mosque of Pantin will have to close its doors from October 21, 2020. -

• The Pantin mosque will be closed from Wednesday evening, according to a decree signed Monday evening by the prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis.

• The authorities accuse M'hammed Henniche, the manager of this place of worship, of having relayed, on the mosque's Facebook account, the video of the student's parent who implicated Samuel Paty, the teacher beheaded on the 16th. October.

• But a period of 48 hours allows the establishment and the managers to lodge an appeal with the administrative court.

Will the 1,300 faithful of the Pantin mosque find the door closed from this Wednesday?

In any case, this is what the Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin wants.

Invited on the TF1 JT set on Monday evening, the tenant of Place Beauvau said he had asked the Seine-Saint-Denis prefecture to take an order to close this place of worship for a period of six month.

Why is this establishment specifically targeted by the Minister?

What does the law say about this?

What are the reproaches formulated by the authorities against this mosque and its leaders and is this closure inevitable? 

takes stock.

• What is the legal basis for this closure?

Signed by the prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis on Monday, October 19, the order closing the mosque, consulted by

based on article L 227-1 of the code of internal security, established by " Silt law ”.

Aimed at "strengthening internal security", this text adopted in October 2017 was supposed to allow, according to the government, "a controlled exit from the state regime.

emergency ”, under which France had lived for almost two years.

"In order to prevent the commission of acts of terrorism", article L 227-1 authorizes the prefect to pronounce for a maximum period of six months the closure of places of worship "in which the words which are made, the ideas or theories which are disseminated or the activities which take place provoke violence, hatred or discrimination, incite the commission of acts of terrorism or condone such acts ”.

• What do the authorities hold against the establishment?

In his decree, the prefect justifies his decision to close the Pantin mosque by relying on several elements.

The authorities accuse M'hammed Henniche, president of the Muslim Federation of Pantin (FMP) in charge of this place of worship, for having made in August 2018 on his Facebook account statements "inciting Internet users to remove their children from the 'public school ".

Problem, according to the principal concerned denies having made his remarks.

Asked by

M'hammed Henniche defended himself: “I am not anti-public school, it is totally false.

Looks like they wanted to load the mule with the wrong things ”.

Spotted at the time by the newspaper 

these remarks were made by Hassen Farsadou, a close friend of Henniche, co-president of UAM93, the Union of Muslim associations of 93.

But this is not the only reason given by the prefect.

This closure decision is mainly based on the dissemination, by the Facebook account of the great mosque of Pantin (managed by M'hammed Henniche), of the video of the father of the schoolgirl incriminating Samuel Paty.

Questioned by 

the man admitted to having posted this video and explained having deleted it after the teacher's beheading.

"Nobody, really nobody, could imagine, on October 9 when I posted it, that it would end in this assassination", he had explained.

Finally, the prefectural decree considers that the Pantin mosque maintains "links with Salafism" and points to the personality of the current imam of the place of worship, Ibrahim Doucouré.

"Involved in the radical Islamist movement in Ile-de-France", the man was said to have been trained for two years in a "fundamentalist institute" in Yemen and would have educated his children in an underground denominational school in Bobigny, also closed to decision of the prefect on October 8.

Fight against radical Islam.

Closure this morning by the Seine-Saint-Denis prefecture of an underground school in Bobigny bringing together in unspeakable conditions several dozen children outside the law and republican principles.

- Prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis (@ Prefet93) October 8, 2020

Contacted, the mayor (PS) of the town hall of Pantin, Bertrand Kern, specified that "if one of the imams of the mosque poses a problem (...) no element had hitherto been brought to the attention of the city de Pantin suggesting that the mosque was controlled by Islamism ”.

In addition, the elected representative said he feared "that this decision (...) will cast shame on the faithful, while their vast majority is moderate".

• Is an appeal possible?

As provided by law, the managers of the mosque have 48 hours to lodge an appeal with the administrative court of Montreuil.

In the event of rejection by the judge of the interim freedom responsible for deciding, they may appeal to the Council of State.

“The framework set by the Silt law is quite strict.

This closure order is an administrative police measure [as opposed to a judicial measure decided by the courts].

Like any administrative police measure, as soon as it infringes one of our freedoms, in this case the freedom of worship, it must be necessary, proportionate and adapted to the circumstances ”, recalls Serge Slama, professor of law. public at the University of Grenoble-Alpes.

In any case, the fact that the video was posted on the mosque's Facebook account and that it was not about comments made inside the place of worship does not change anything.

In January 2018, the Council of State rejected the appeal of the association managing the “As Sunna” mosque in Marseille.

At the time, the imam of the mosque was criticized for disseminating hateful sermons on his website.

For the time being, no decision to file an appeal has been communicated by mosque officials.

In the absence of such a remedy by tomorrow, the Pantin mosque will close its doors from Wednesday evening until April 2021.

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• Jihadism

• Radicalization

• Puppet

• Conflans attack

• Paris