Almost six months after the assassination of Samuel Paty, the history and geography professor victim of an attack in Conflans-Saint-Honorine, the Pantin mosque is preparing to reopen its doors on Friday.
Gérald Darmanin criticized his managers for sharing on social networks a video of a father criticizing Samuel Paty for showing Charlie Hebdo caricatures in his class.
The Pantin mosque, closed on October 21 in the wake of the assassination of teacher Samuel Paty, will reopen on Friday, the prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis Georges-François Leclerc told AFP on Wednesday.
This mosque of about 1,300 faithful had been closed for six months on the instruction of the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, who notably reproached his officials for having relayed on Facebook the video of a father of a pupil who was responsible for the gear that led to the murder of the history and geography professor of Conflans-Saint-Honorine, in the Yvelines.
On October 16, an 18-year-old Chechen Russian refugee beheaded the 47-year-old father, accusing him of showing caricatures of Muhammad to his students.
After this tragedy, the Interior Ministry had promised "a war against the enemies of the Republic" and launched a series of operations against the Islamist movement.
A reopening under conditions
In his viewfinder thus appeared the imam of the mosque of Pantin, trained in Yemen and suspected of being "involved" in this movement.
The latter had resigned on October 26.
But the Minister of the Interior and the Prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis had set a sine qua non condition for the early reopening of the mosque before Ramadan (mid-April): the departure of its rector, M'hammed Henniche .
At the head of the Muslim Federation of Pantin since 2013, he ended up retiring in mid-March, paving the way for the reopening of the place of worship.