By Abdulla Gaafarelkhalifa

On December 28, 2021, a mosque in Beauvais, northern France, was ordered shut for six months for "inciting violence," according to France's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. Since mid-December, Darmanin’s administration has been trying to close the mosque down, due to reports of sermons that use violent and hateful comments targeting Christians, Jews, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

According to an official document given to Agence France-Presse, a French state-owned international news agency, "The terrorist threat remains at a very high level" and the closing of the mosque had "the aim of forestalling acts of terrorism being committed.”

Samim Bolaky, a lawyer representing the mosque, acknowledges these remarks were made by one imam, but he also claims that the imam in question has been suspended, and that the mosque has “always fought terrorism” and “has always favored living together.”

The Interior Ministry said this month that around 1 out of every 26 mosques and Muslim prayer halls have been investigated over recent months because of suspicion that they were spreading "separatist" ideology.

Six sites were being probed with a possibility of being closed down, according to the document.