France closes mosque in crackdown following teacher’s killing News

France closes mosque in crackdown following teacher’s killing
Grand Mosque of Pantin shared video criticising teacher victim who showed pupils caricatures of Prophet Muhammad.
France ordered the temporary closure of a mosque outside Paris on Tuesday as part of a crackdown on people who are suspected of inciting hatred, after the killing of a teacher who showed his class caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
The Grand Mosque of Pantin, in a low-income suburb on the capital’s northeastern outskirts, had shared a video on its Facebook page before the attack that vented hatred against history teacher Samuel Paty.
Police plastered notices of the closure order outside the mosque as the authorities promised a tough response against the disseminators of hate messages, preachers of controversial sermons and foreigners believed to pose a security threat to France.
The six-month order was “for the sole purpose of preventing acts of terrorism”, the notice issued by the head of the Seine-Saint-Denis department read.
The beheading of Paty, a public servant, for his use of religious satire to explore with students the debate surrounding freedom of expression has convulsed the country and shocked the world.
The killing came weeks after President Emmanuel Macron expressed concerns about what he calls “Islamist separatism”.