What about after the six months are over? Do French authorities actually believe that this mosque will then teach the importance of the freedom of speech and the necessity to reject Islam’s death penalty for blasphemy?
“French mosque shut over message linked to teacher beheading,” by Elaine Ganley, AP, October 20, 2020:
PARIS — A mosque in a Paris suburb is being closed for six months starting Wednesday night on orders from France’s interior minister in a crackdown following the beheading last week of a teacher.
A sign posted by the regional prefecture at the entrance of the Pantin mosque, northeast of Paris, said the house of worship would be closed for six months — with a six-month prison sentence for violators.
A terror investigation is under way into Friday’s beheading of Samuel Paty in another suburb, after he showed caricatures of the prophet of Islam to his class earlier this month. His civics course led to parental complaints and threats.
The Pantin mosque is being punished for relaying a message on social media from the father of a student with a virulent complaint about the teacher. The father quoted his 13-year-old daughter as saying that Paty had asked Muslims to leave the classroom — a version that was contested by the teacher himself, according to press reports.
Paty, a history teacher at a middle school northwest of Paris, was beheaded by a 18-year-old Moscow-born Chechen refugee, who was later shot dead by police.
As of Tuesday, 16 people, including students, were being held for questioning….
Authorities say the Pantin mosque has long had an imam following the Salafist path, a rigorous interpretation of the Muslim holy book.
Pantin was where an 18-year-old Pakistani refugee three weeks earlier attacked and injured two people with a meat cleaver lived….
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said late Monday that the message relayed by the Pantin mosque mentioned the address of the school. In an interview with TF1 TV station, he also said authorities have closed 356 locations where people were radicalized since Macron took office in 2017.
Darmanin had previously said authorities were also looking into about 50 associations suspected of encouraging hate speech and the issue will be discussed at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday….