The document outlining the closure of the mosque said that “the terrorist threat remains at a very high level” and the closure had “the aim of forestalling acts of terrorism being committed,”
France is shutting down the Great Mosque of Beauvais in the northern region of Oise after authorities said the imam’s radical sermons “defended jihad,” the BBC reported Tuesday.
The Beauvais mosque will remain closed for six months.
The outlet said France has been checking on mosques and Islamic places of worship that have suspected links to terrorism.
Local authorities said sermons at the mosque referred to jihadists as “heroes” and incited violence and hatred, the BBC reported.
France’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said two weeks ago that the imam was “targeting Christians, homosexuals and Jews” in his sermons and started the process to shut down the mosque. Authorities gave the mosque 10 days to respond.
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