France has ordered the closure of a mosque in the north of the country under the pretext of its imam's "radical" preaching, regional authorities told the media outlets on Tuesday.
The mosque in Beauvais, a town of 50,000 people some 100 kilometres (62 miles) north of Paris, will remain shut for six months, according to the prefecture of the Oise region where Beauvais is located.
France accused the mosque imam of preaching a sermon that incited hatred and violence.
The move comes two weeks after Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said he had triggered the procedure to close the site because the imam allegedly "is targeting Christians, homosexuals and Jews" in his sermons.
Local authorities were legally bound to launch a 10-day period of information-gathering before taking action but told AFP on Tuesday that the mosque would now be shut within two days.
Local daily Courrier Picard reported this month that the mosque's imam was a recent convert to Islam.
The paper quoted a lawyer for the association managing the mosque as saying that his remarks had been "taken out of context", and said that the imam had been suspended from his duties following the prefecture's letter.
Samim Bolaky -- the lawyer for the association managing the mosque -- said in a statement: "The imam shared his opinion to answer the question asked to him. The question was about whether homosexuality was acceptable in Islamic religion?"
Bolaky added: "The decision [being taken to close the mosque] has been considered "disproportionate" and the Muslim community in Beauvais has been punished."
France has launched a major crackdown on the Muslim minority more than a year ago. Closing schools, Muslim organizations and mosques French authorities have been taking heat from global leaders, human rights groups and activists, who call the move a serious attack on rights and freedoms in France.
Darmanin announced earlier this year that France would step up checks against places of worship and associations suspected of spreading radical propaganda. However, critics say the French authorities use the vague and ill-defined concept of "radicalization" or "radical Islam" to justify the imposition of measures without valid grounds, which risks leading to discrimination in its application against Muslims and other minority groups.
The crackdown came after the October 2020 murder of teacher Samuel Paty who was targeted following an online campaign against him for having shown controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published by the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo during a civics class.
French President Emmanuel Macron defended the publication of caricatures that offended Muslims and said he will not prevent the publishing of the cartoons under the pretext of freedom of speech, sparking outrage among the Muslim world.
While French Muslims have accused him of trying to repress their religion and legitimizing Islamophobia. Several Muslim-majority countries, including Turkey and Pakistan, have condemned Macron's attitude toward Muslims and Islam.
Critics say French anti-Muslim laws that target Muslims, their worship places, educational and other centres violates religious freedom and unfairly targets France's 5.7 million Muslim minority, the largest in Europe. Although, France's unpopular "anti-separatism" law does not specifically mention the word "Islam," French Muslims have protested against it for months, claiming the measures set them apart.
According to the interior ministry, 99 mosques and Muslim prayer halls out of France's total number of 2,623 have been investigated in recent months because they were suspected of spreading "separatist" ideology. Of the total, 21 were currently shut for various reasons, and six were being probed with a view to closing them down on the basis of French laws against extremism and separatism.
