France closes mosque over Quran verses and Islamic texts used in Muslim worship

France closes mosque over Quran verses and Islamic texts used in Muslim worship
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A French court has upheld the six-month closure of a mosque near Paris in a case that has raised fresh concerns over the state’s policing of Islamic belief and worship.

The Montreuil Administrative Court on Friday rejected an attempt to suspend the July order against the Chanteloup mosque in Aulnay-sous-Bois. The mosque will remain closed until January.

Rafik Chekkat, a human rights lawyer representing the mosque, questioned whether imams in France remained free to recite Islam’s sacred text.

Chekkat said the authorities based part of their case on imams “quoting…seven passages from the Quran and references to major works of the Islamic tradition, such as The Garden of the Righteous and The Forty Hadiths.”

The major works in question form part of the body of work of the 13th-century Syrian scholar Imam al-Nawawi, who is widely regarded as one of the Muslim world’s most important thinkers.

The authorities also objected to sermons “evoking ‘hell’ and the ‘punishments of the grave’ reserved for ‘unbelievers’”, despite similar teachings forming part of religious preaching in churches and other places of worship.

Judges ruled that the prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis, Julien Charles, “did not commit a serious and manifestly illegal infringement of either the freedom of worship or the freedom of expression”.

The decision follows years of expanding state pressure on Muslim institutions. French authorities closed 22 mosques in 18 months by April 2022, often using intelligence documents whose sources remained hidden.

The government has also dissolved Muslim organisations, including the Collective Against Islamophobia in France and the charity BarakaCity, deepening fears that France is using security laws to restrict Muslims’ freedom of belief.