The judgement is in. A religious institution in Bobigny that was threatened with closure after an administrative audit on Wednesday February 16 has now been officially ordered closed by the prefecture of the Seine-Saint-Denis department. As reported by France 3, “numerous irregularities” were found at this Tarbiya institute in Seine-Saint-Denis, which takes in minors during non-school hours to teach them Islamic lessons.
The prefecture highlighted a fundamental problem that concerned other aspects besides deficiencies in “fire prevention” and a utilisation of the premises that did not correspond to the stated reception capacity. In its press release, it stated that the control officers “were able to establish that the activities carried out within the association were particularly due to communitarian practices”. Referring to the law of August 24, 2021 against separatism, the institution added that for this reason these activities were “contrary to the values of the Republic”. Incidentally, as France 3 points out, a police source reported the children’s inappropriate clothing or even drawings of faceless figures in the premises of the association, which is housed in the Campus formation et métiers in Bobigny.