Closing Mosques, Dissolving Associations: Behind France’s Standoff Against Radical Islam - Le Figaro

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A prayer hall in Aulnay-sous-Bois, north of Paris, was closed in July for inciting violence and hatred. Proceedings to dissolve the religious association are also underway, and the Bobigny prosecutor’s office has been notified of remarks made by extremist imams.

The 2027 presidential campaign is in full swing. And the French government, criticized by the left for “Islamophobia” and by the right for “laxity,” continues its decades-long standoff against radical Islam. Meanwhile, Islamism’s influence is growing in both the political and societal spheres.

As part of the fight against the Muslim Brotherhood, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez made the decision — which was upheld by the courts — to ban the annual gathering of Muslims of the West in the western city of Nantes in May. This summer, the target was Salafism in Aulnay-sous-Bois, north of Paris: The radical Attaqwa mosque, known as Chanteloup, was closed for six months by an order issued by Prefect Julien Charles on July 27, which the courts upheld.

The case is ongoing, as Nuñez is now seeking to dissolve the association that leads the place of worship. He has also referred the matter to the Bobigny prosecutor’s office regarding statements made by the mosque’s imams. The Council of Ministers is expected to order the dissolution by decree for “incitement to hatred or violence against a person or group on the basis of their origin, race or religion.” The stakes are high: Dissolution would finalize the closure order. It is also symbolic because — given its origins and how it has unfolded — the Attaqwa mosque case is a textbook example that illustrates the prevalence of radical Islam and the constant surveillance by government agencies, primarily intelligence services.

According to these agencies, it all began more than 10 years ago in the neighboring town of Sevran. A clandestine prayer hall, nicknamed the “Radars mosque” (after the name of a neighborhood) or, more explicitly, the “ISIS mosque,” was shut down in March 2016. The site, located in a modest shopping center, was even walled off by municipal authorities. The reasons cited were radical sermons and the departure of about a dozen worshippers to join the jihadist movement in Iraq and Syria in 2014 and 2015. Many of these individuals are now believed to be missing or dead, some in suicide bombings.

The trial of the jihadists from the Sevran “network” took place in Paris in early 2020. Several former leaders of the Radars mosque testified, trying to downplay their role and denying any radicalization at their place of worship. One of them acknowledged only that hatred of Shiites — “enemies of the Sunnis” and one of ISIS’s favorite targets — was preached there.

At the time, the Salafist movement associated with the “ISIS mosque” had in fact already adapted to the closure. Some members remained on site — a new clandestine prayer hall was later shut down by the Ministry of Interior in 2021 — while others moved to the neighboring town of Aulnay-sous-Bois. Among them were witnesses in the 2020 trial that government agencies said were “known for their adherence to jihadist ideology.”

The meeting point for these Islamist veterans? A small prayer hall founded in the 2010s. As modest as the one in Sevran, it is run by an association created in April 2018. Sandwiched between a hammam and an evangelical church, the place is unassuming, with a simple, anonymous glass-and-brick facade bearing the association’s logo. Given the figures cited, the proselytizing has not been very successful: the Sevran mosque had drawn some 300 people, and 10 years later, the Chanteloup mosque welcomes roughly the same number of worshippers.

The site is, unsurprisingly, subject to discreet surveillance in strict compliance with religious freedom. In 2019, the Seine-Saint-Denis Prefecture ordered an initial temporary closure “for security reasons,” while the association’s president denounced the move as “political.” The following year, the association recruited two imams who were active online and had a pronounced Salafist stance. In May 2020, during a live broadcast on YouTube, one of them reportedly stated that “Muslims are not meant to live among non-Muslims.”

Over time, the government said it has observed a hardening of rhetoric and a growing trend toward extremism. That led to the July 27, 2026, order signed by Seine-Saint-Denis Prefect Julien Charles, based on provisions of France’s Internal Security Code allowing for “the closure of places of worship in which the statements made, the ideas or theories disseminated, or the activities taking place incite violence, hatred or discrimination, incite the commission of acts of terrorism, or glorify such acts.”

The list of statements and writings identified by the prefecture is long and, to say the least, detailed — with a certain “October 7, 2023” effect. This applies to the first imam, born in Morocco in 1984, who has several hundred thousand followers online. On December 15, 2023, according to the Seine-Saint-Denis Prefecture, he glorified “death as a martyr by calling for revenge against Israel, emphasizing that the Quran honors ‘those who have died in the path of Allah.’” In January 2025, he justified “the assassination of an individual who organized public burnings of the Quran in Sweden,” explaining in a video: “What was this person’s punishment? On January 30, 2025, while he was live on TikTok, he was shot dead… [He] was finally brought to justice…No challenge to the Quran goes unpunished. And those who mock the signs of Allah always end up perishing.” Finally, in a video from March 2, 2026, the imam lashed out at the Shiites — just as the Radars mosque had done 10 years earlier — describing them as “infidel-nonbelievers” and “enemies of Allah” who are “more impure than pigs and dogs.”

The second imam, born in Seine-Saint-Denis in 1980, strikes a similar tone; in a video dated November 17, 2023, he justified “the October 7, 2023, attacks carried out by Hamas and, more broadly, death as a martyr.” In a sermon on May 2, 2025, he declared that Allah “destroys the nonbelievers” and praised martyrdom. The man is also accused of regularly targeting nonbelievers in 2025 and 2026, “repeatedly calling them animals, doomed to hell and to the ‘torments of the grave.’”

In January 2026, citing verse 217 of Surah al-Baqarah of the Quran, he told his audience that the nonbelievers “will not cease to fight you until they turn you back from your own religion, if they are able. This means they will stop at nothing,” that they were seeking “means and schemes, ruses and strategies” to “lead astray” Muslims “day and night.”

Attacks also targeted Jews “during sermons and teachings broadcast on YouTube, notably on December 29, 2025, January 1, 2026, and March 17, 2026.” Not to mention the justification of “imposing punishments on those who do not abide by religious precepts.”

The government also stated that in December 2024 and 2025, the mosque had hosted a “Kuwaiti Salafist preacher,” who is also well-established online and in the Gulf region. A man “known for repeatedly glorifying acts of terrorism and justifying the attack of October 7, 2023” — notably through a video asserting that this attack “brings joy to all Muslims,” and that “this is part of jihad in the way of God and the defense of the land, the homeland and victory for the Al-Aqsa Mosque.” In Aulnay-sous-Bois, in 2025, he called on the faithful to be “tough on the nonbelievers” and incited “the killing of Muslims who ‘deviate’ from ‘authentic belief.’” The preacher was subject to an administrative ban from the country on February 25, 2026.

In addition to the former members from Sevran, the Chanteloup mosque was also frequented by other radicalized individuals, including those convicted of terrorism and/or subject to administrative measures related to terrorism prevention, as well as the radicalized partner of a jihadist, the ex-wife of a jihadist.

Dismissing this veritable indictment, the mosque, through its lawyer Rafik Chekatt, immediately denounced the measure as constituting “a serious violation of the freedoms of religion and expression, the right to property and the principle of secularism” and based “on insufficient, vague and unsubstantiated evidence, reasoning by analogy, and misinterpretations of verses from the Quran” — the latter point specifically targeting Surah al-Baqarah and implying, in effect, that a mere quotation from Islam’s holy book could, in France in 2026, be sufficient to justify a ban.

Furthermore, Chekatt noted that “the two imams who account for 90% of the allegations against the mosque have been removed.” The government countered that this removal had in fact taken place after the mosque received a letter from Prefect Charles in early July informing it of his intention to temporarily close it. Furthermore, one of the imams had his assets frozen as early as June 2025 for “incitement to commit acts of terrorism.” The association that had recruited him five years earlier did not react.

As a sign of the times: While the closure did not spark any political reactions, it did stir up — albeit very slightly — the open sewer that social media sometimes becomes. On X, a user displaying the Palestinian flag denounced “a racist, Islamophobic prefect… Just like in 1940, Muslims have replaced the Jews. A prefect under the Zionists’ control? In ’40, they were under the control of the Nazis.”

The prefect filed a complaint; the message was reported to the Pharos platform for incitement to hatred, and the account was suspended. Other messages were also reported to Pharos, including those attacking “a racist-Zionist prefect who works for Israel” and “a racist, anti-Muslim prefect.” Not to mention the one denouncing “institutional Islamophobia” before concluding: “When infiltrated Zionism relies on Freemasonry and fuels racism to carry out its Nazi ideology.”

The hearing before the Montreuil Administrative Court, initiated by Chekatt, took a different tone. Charles insisted on speaking personally. The prefect told Le Figaro: “It is ridiculous and false to suggest that a quote from the Quran would be enough to justify a ban. The choice of excerpts from the Quran is the responsibility of the preachers toward their congregants.”

“By choosing the most virulent passages, without any religious or historical context, the [Chanteloup mosque] imams have precisely followed the mosque’s ideological line,” he said. And this, “at a time when the terrorist threat, precisely due to radical Islam, is at its peak.”

Drawing on the details set forth in his order, the prefect convinced the court, which upheld his decision on August 7; the court emphasized in particular that the closure order “has neither the purpose nor the effect, contrary to what is alleged [by the defense], of prohibiting any quotation from the Quran.” This sends an important message in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, where Islam is the largest religion and where 116 Muslim places of worship are among the 243 registered in the inner suburbs.

This judicial validation, ahead of a possible dissolution of the association, is also significant for government agencies. Even though they know that the fight against radical Islam is far from over.