"The decision that was taken last week by the Ministry of the Interior is not to take an administrative closure measure, in the light of the elements provided by the new officials of the mosque", underlined the prefecture.
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced on January 12 that he had "closed" this mosque in downtown Cannes.
"We accuse him of anti-Semitic remarks (and) support for the CCIF (Collective against Islamophobia in France, editor's note) and BarakaCity," said the Minister of the Interior on Cnews.
The CCIF and BarakaCity, two "Islamist" associations according to the minister, were dissolved in the wake of the assassination of Professor Samuel Paty in October 2020 in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines), for having shown caricatures of Muhammad in progress .
"It's wisdom and justice," reacted to AFP the new rector of the mosque, Ahmed Guessoum, in office for eight months, who is waiting to be "officially informed of this decision".
This administrative closure procedure had been officially opened due to "hate remarks towards France" and remarks "inciting hatred towards homosexuals or transsexuals" made by the former rector on the mosque's Facebook page, had then detailed the prefecture, also speaking of "explicit anti-Semitic hatred".
As part of the open contradictory procedure, the new rector of the mosque, Mr. Guessoum, who replaced the previous imam, Mustapha Dali, who retired, had transmitted information to the prefecture.
Imam Ahmed Guessoum in the Al Madina al Mounawara mosque in Cannes, in the Alpes-Maritimes, on January 12, 2022 Valery HACHE AFP / Archives
The association managing the mosque "showed that it had completely severed ties with the previous rector and resumed management of the mosque's Facebook page. The guarantees provided were deemed sufficient", further specified the prefecture.
"I think they (the Ministry of the Interior, editor's note) reconsidered the situation. They quickly understood that it was inappropriate to close the mosque and deprive the 600 faithful of their place of prayer", added M Guessoum, who, as of January 12, had judged this planned closure as "unfair and unjustified".
On Monday, the Gironde prefecture announced the six-month closure of the Al Farouk mosque in Pessac, in the suburbs of Bordeaux, accused of promoting "radical Islam" and conveying "a Salafist ideology".
© 2022 AFP