The first private Muslim school with a state mandate can’t get out of the headlines. At the beginning of May, the people in charge of the neighbouring mosque in Villeneuve-d’Ascq were taken into police custody, among other things because of a fraudulent loan that the Islamic centre had granted to the Averroès high school. […] […] Today, the school has a total of more than 800 pupils. […
And even if the educational project soberly refers to “universal Muslim values”, Averroès’ commitment to republican values is unquestionable – but unfortunately only on paper. The school repeatedly emphasises its attachment to “republican values”, “education for citizenship” and “civic spirit”, which are mentioned again and again in its texts. In November 2020, the school had extensively reported on a tribute paid by the students to Samuel Paty…
However, the regional audit chamber underlines the discrepancy between this striking rhetoric and the reality of religious education at the Collège and Lycée Averroès. This concerns in particular the curriculum and the reading offered as part of a voluntary course on Muslim ethics.
[…] One of the books covered in the second grade has called out prosecutors in particular[…] The book contains a number of political and social rules that the believer must abide by, such as the prohibition of mixed teams in the workplace or the prohibition for a sick woman to be examined by a man. Finally, the book, which calls for referring to “the law of Allah and nothing else” in all disputes, condemns apostasy, which is presented as a crime worthy of death: Whoever ceases to be a Muslim “must be executed according to the legal punishment provided for apostasy”[…].
Almost every year, the Lycée Averroès is nearing the 100% pass rate at the baccalaureate […] […] Averroès has to rely, unreasonably, on the generosity of its private donors, who either donate directly or grant interest-free loans, sometimes followed by a debt waiver. In total, these donations amount to around 6 million euros over the ten years of the financial year, a large part of which comes from abroad, via funding from Qatar (which the journalist for Le Figaro Georges Malbrunot in particular has highlighted in his book Qatar Papers 2019) or even via money collected from mosques in Germany and the Netherlands. The institution also depends on public subsidies, which have amounted to more than 6.5 million euros since 2010. Public funds and private donations each account for more than a quarter of Averroès’ income, whose turnover is far from sufficient to ensure the institution’s self-financing. This business model “therefore appears structurally unbalanced and unsustainable in the long term” for the prosecutors. […]
The audit of Averroès’ accounts also revealed numerous errors or irregularities which, taken together, gave the impression of sometimes careless management of the association’s funds. […]
Le Figaro / https://www.fdesouche.com/2023/05/16/lycee-prive-musulman-averroes-a-lille-59-cours-dethique-musulmane-au-contenu-salafiste-irregularites-dans-la-gestion-depuis-des-annees-letablissement-ne-cesse-de-defrayer-la-chroniq/