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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/frances-high-court-rules-emmanuel-macrons-mosque-ban-illegal">electronicintifada.net</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">France's high court rules Emmanuel Macron's mosque ban illegal</h1>
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<p class="gmail-node__submitted">
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-author"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah">Ali Abunimah</a></span> -
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-publication-date"><span class="gmail-date-display-single">26 April 2022</span></span> </p>
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<span><img src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2022-04/sfphotosfive393444.jpg?itok=5VTPK6Sk×tamp=1651008657" alt="Large crowd holding signs and marching" title=""></span><p>A
rally in Paris earlier this month against both top candidates in
France’s presidential election, which incumbent Emmanuel Macron won on
24 April. Two days later, France’s high court declared illegal a Macron
administration order to close a mosque whose leader criticized Israel.</p><small>
<span>SIPA</span></small><p>Days after his
re-election victory, President Emmanuel Macron has suffered a major
defeat at the hands of the Muslim community in Pessac in southwestern
France.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, the country’s highest administrative court, the Conseil
d’Etat, threw out a government decree ordering the closure of the
Bordeaux suburb’s Farouk mosque for six months.</p>
<p>Macron’s interior ministry issued the order earlier this year on the
pretext that the mosque was spreading hatred against France and Israel
and inciting terrorism.</p>
<p>In reality it amounted to <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/emmanuel-macron-wages-war-frances-muslims">revenge and collective punishment</a> for the mosque president’s criticisms of Israel’s crimes against Palestinians and of Macron’s harsh anti-Muslim policies.</p>
<p>It was also a transparent effort to increase Macron’s appeal to
racist voters in the run-up to the presidential election in which he
faced off against far-right leader Marine Le Pen.</p>
<p>Last month, a lower court in Bordeaux threw out the order, calling it
disproportionate and “a grave and manifestly illegal violation of the
freedom of religion.”</p>
<p>Gérald Darmanin, the interior minister, took the case to the Conseil d’Etat in an effort to reinstate the order.</p>
<p>But the Macron administration lost.</p>
<p>The high court in Paris <a href="https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/le-conseil-detat-retoque-le-ministere-de-linterieur-la-mosquee-de-pessac-pourra-rester-ouverte-26-04-2022-55S7RP3TFRHNJLA5BU7DT7SWKE.php#xtor=AD-1481423553">confirmed</a>
that by ordering the mosque’s closure, the prefect of Gironde, the
interior minister’s regional official, had “taken a police measure that
constitutes a grave and manifestly illegal infringement of the freedom
of worship.”
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<blockquote><p dir="ltr" lang="fr">🔴 [Communiqué
exclusif] Victoire! La mosquée de Pessac gagne la procédure devant le
Conseil d'état: le recours du Ministère de l'intérieur rejeté! <a href="https://t.co/DcRNnWaoIP">pic.twitter.com/DcRNnWaoIP</a></p>— Sefen Guez Guez (@Me_GuezGuez) <a href="https://twitter.com/Me_GuezGuez/status/1518943207077392390?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 26, 2022</a></blockquote>
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In its decision, the Conseil d’Etat “rejected the appeal of the interior
ministry and once again vindicated the Pessac mosque,” Sefen Guez Guez,
the Muslim congregation’s lawyer <a href="https://twitter.com/Me_GuezGuez/status/1518943207077392390">said</a> on Tuesday.
<p>According to Guez Guez, the court found that “nothing in the case
presented by the interior ministry supports an accusation against the
mosque for inciting terrorism.”</p>
<p>Many of the ministry’s <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/emmanuel-macron-wages-war-frances-muslims">justifications for closing the mosque</a> were ludicrous on their face.</p>
<p>They included a social media post by Abdourahmane Ridouane, the
mosque’s president, quoting Nelson Mandela supporting Palestinian
freedom.</p>
<p>Ridouane had also angered the government by criticizing it for
banning a group that combats anti-Muslim prejudice, and calling Gaza,
where Israel cages, besieges and regularly bombs a mostly refugee
Palestinian population, a “concentration camp.”</p>
<p>Guez Guez noted that the Conseil d’Etat ruling sets a legal precedent.</p>
<p>That’s important because the Macron administration has increasingly
resorted to closing mosques and banning groups with whose opinions it
disagrees.</p>
<p>Amnesty International has <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/11/france-shutting-down-antiracist-organisation-risks-freedoms/">termed</a>
the government’s 2020 order dissolving CCIF, the group fighting
anti-Muslim bigotry, “a shocking move” that could have “a chilling
effect on all people and organizations engaged in combating racism and
discrimination in France.”</p>
<p>In addition to targeting Muslim communities, the <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/france-rejects-apartheid-label-israel">staunchly pro-Israel</a> Macron has used similar repression against supporters of Palestinian rights.</p>
<p>In February, he <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/france-outlawing-two-palestine-solidarity-groups">ordered the dissolution</a> of two French Palestine solidarity groups.</p>
<p>The Farouk mosque’s lawyer Sefen Guez Guez praised the popular
mobilization by members of the community and supporters across France.
He said that their activism, along with the legal battle, meant that the
mosque “had not been closed for a single minute.”</p>
<p>“It won at every stage, before the administrative tribunal in Bordeaux and at the Conseil d’Etat.”</p>
<p>This video shows mosque president Ridouane addressing supporters in Paris on the day of the hearing at the high court:
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“The mosque is a place of worship but it’s not only that. Every evening
we distribute free meals, so it doesn’t only affect Muslims,” Janna, a
19-year-old student, <a href="https://www.bondyblog.fr/societe/police-justice/fermeture-de-la-mosquee-de-pessac-audience-tendue-au-conseil-detat/">told <em>Bondy Blog</em></a> earlier this month.
<p>She was one of the many community members who made the 400-mile trek
from Bordeaux to the capital to support the mosque during the hearing at
the Conseil d’Etat.</p>
<p>That sort of charitable and community work is especially important during Ramadan, when the mosque has been <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Rassemblement-des-Musulmans-de-Pessac-216012998583004/photos/1896804873837133">hosting iftars</a> every evening offering hot meals to anyone.</p>
<p>With Tuesday’s court victory against Macron’s anti-Muslim and
anti-Palestinian repression, the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday
celebrating the end of the fasting month will be sweeter than ever.</p>
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