French authorities have started shutting down some mosques and prayer halls they found to be preaching radical Islamic ideology since December 2015, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said. Of the country’s 2,500 mosques and prayer halls, approximately 120 of them have been suspected by French authorities of preaching radical Salafism, a fundamentalist interpretation of Sunni Islam.

“There is no place … in France for those who call for and incite hatred in prayer halls or in mosques, and who don’t respect certain republican principles, notably equality between men and women,” Cazeneuve said, adding, “That is why I took the decision a few months ago to close mosques through the state of emergency, legal measures or administrative measures. About 20 mosques have been closed, and there will be others.” The announcement came days after French Prime Minister Manuel Valls called for a temporary ban on foreign funding of French mosques.

Cazeneuve also announced that French authorities would be working with the French Council of the Muslim Faith to launch a foundation to help finance mosques within France. “Since October 2016, a foundation was created to finance the cultural aspect of cultural institutions and scholarships for secular education #islam,” he tweeted.

Source: Le Figaro