France to stop funding largest Muslim high school amid fears of wider crackdown

France is to end funding for its biggest Muslim high school on the grounds of administrative failures and questionable teaching practices, a local official said on Monday, the latest in what some rights groups say is a wider crackdown on Muslims.

Private school Averroes, the first Muslim high school to open in mainland France in 2003 in the northern city of Lille, has more than 800 pupils and has been under contract with the state since 2008. Pupils follow the regular French curriculum, and are also offered religion classes.

But in an October report, the interior ministry’s local office claimed the school was suffering from administrative and financial dysfunction and that some teaching did not align with French republican values.

This contradicts a 2020 education ministry inspection report saying that “nothing in the observations … allows (us) to think teaching practices don’t respect republican values”.

As the interior ministry’s local office declines to provide more details on the contract termination, many Muslims feel France – home to the largest Muslim population in Europe – has become generally more hostile towards them, especially after France suffered a string of deadly jihadist attacks in 2015.

Some Muslims describe the decision as “a witch-hunt”, while others call it “an injustice doubled with an insult.” “We do everything by the book, and we are still being pestered,” they complain.

In September, the education minister banned the abaya in public schools, which drew criticism both internally and on international level by rights activists.

France, which has enforced a strict ban on religious symbols in state schools since 19th century laws removed any traditional Catholic influence from public education, has struggled to update guidelines to deal with a growing Muslim minority.

The strict brand of so-called secularism, known as “laicite,” is a sensitive topic, and one often quick to trigger tension.