End of the contract between the Averroès Muslim high school and the State: justice renders its decision this Monday

Lionel Gougelot (in Lille) / Photo credits: Sameer Al-DOUMY / AFP 10:18 a.m., February 12, 2024

The Averroès high school, the first private Muslim high school in France, under contract with the State, is at stake for its future this Monday. The administrative court of Lille must render its decision on the summary appeal filed by the establishment, after the decision of the prefect of the North to terminate the contract linking the establishment to the State, due to teaching deemed "contrary to the values ​​of the Republic", which the management of the establishment refutes. But without public subsidies, this high school, which has 400 students and 35 teachers, will no longer be able to operate.

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“We form perfectly fulfilled citizens”

At the hearing, before the court, the prefecture's lawyer and the prefect himself defended at length the suspension of the association contract because of the school's supposed links with the Muslim Brotherhood movement. The State representative even considered that public money did not have to finance an establishment in which, according to him, a separatist ideology would be conveyed. Accusations rejected outright by the director of the Averroès high school, Éric Dufour. 

“All our high school graduates, our 2,000 high school graduates who have entered brilliant studies and into French society, testify for us because we form perfectly fulfilled citizens, everyone testifies to this. It is always very hurtful, humiliating I would say , to consider that indeed we would not defend the values ​​of the Republic. For me, it is unbearable", he testifies at the microphone of Europe 1.

Despite the threat of a removal of public subsidies which, according to the school's lawyer, would constitute a death sentence, the leaders of Averroès say they are calm, even accusing the prefectural authorities of misuse of power. The fact remains that, whatever the decision of the administrative court this Monday, it will undoubtedly be the subject of an appeal.