French raids to target mosques accused of radicalisation

PARIS: French authorities were to swoop on Thursday on dozens of mosques and prayer halls suspected of radical teachings as part of a crackdown on Islamist extremists following a spate of attacks, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

Darmanin told RTL radio that if any prayer hall was found to promote extremism it would be closed down. The inspections to be carried out on Thursday afternoon are part of a response to two gruesome attacks that particularly shocked France—the beheading of a teacher who showed his pupils offensive cartoons and the stabbing to death of three people in a church in Nice.

Darmanin did not reveal which places of worship would be inspected. In a note he sent to regional security chiefs, seen by AFP, he listed 16 addresses in the Paris region and 60 others around the country.

The right-wing minister told RTL said the fact that only a fraction of the around 2,600 Muslim places of worship in accords on investment protection, science and technology.

The UAE was only the third Arab country to normalise ties with Israel following Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. However, its move was quickly followed by Bahrain and in October Sudan also announced it would normalise relations with Israel.

The agreements, which have been roundly condemned by the Palestinians, break with years of Arab League policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.