The mayor (PCF) of Allonnes (Sarthe) confirmed this on Wednesday November the 3rd. The town’s mosque, which was shut down at the end of October because of radical preaching, has not paid rent to the town hall, reports Le Figaro. Questioned by the opposition during a city council meeting, Mayor Gilles Leproust took refuge in the reference to equal treatment of the different religious associations, without being convincing.
“Yes, the premises are provided free of charge,” said the mayor. The water and electricity bills for the Yvon Luby Intercultural Hall, which housed the mosque, were also paid by the municipality. “For both religions, i.e. the church and the mosque, the treatment is the same, we provide our premises free of charge,” Gilles Leproust defended himself. But as Le Figaro notes, the comparison is misplaced because the church dates back to the Middle Ages. However, the 1905 law on the separation of church and state stipulates that already existing places of worship can be made available free of charge, but not places of worship built and made available later.
In mid-October, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin had asked the prefect of the Sarthe region to order a closure of the mosque because the sermons propagated “armed jihad, martyrdom, the committing of acts of terrorism and the use of violence” (according to the Interior Minister). The closure for six months was made public on October 26. The order said, among other things, that a man had gathered worshippers at the mosque in September 2022 and declared that the creators of the Muhammad cartoons published in Charlie Hebdo “deserve death”. “This was also the case after the murder of Samuel Paty in October 2020,” the document says.
jizya
“For both religions, i.e. the church and the mosque, the treatment is the same, we provide our premises free of charge,” The Mosque preached violence, hate and intolerance, whilst the Church preached peace, love and tolerance. I know it’s a minor difference to the mayor. Just goes to show there are idiots everywhere.