'Taking decisive steps': France shuts down 9 places of worship to curb Islamic extremism

France has shut down at least nine places of worship under the nationwide campaign against Islamic separatism, said the French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on January 16. In a statement, he said that the move was taken in accordance with French President Emmanuel Macron’s orders and after monitoring at least 18 places of worship that were under surveillance. 

According to the Figaro newspaper, three of the nine closed facilities were located in the department of Seine-Saint-Denis near Paris. This came as France has ramped up its campaign against extremism prevailing in the nation and suffering multiple terror attacks including the murder of a teacher, Samuel Paty, who showed his pupils the caricatures of what deemed to be depicting Prophet Mohammad.

“In line with the orders of the president of the Republic and the prime minister we are taking decisive steps against the Islamist separatism. Out of 18 places of worship under special surveillance nine have been closed upon my request," the minister wrote on his Twitter page.

Read - Reports Of Shortages Of Virus Vaccine In France

Read - $500K In Bitcoin Sent From France To US Far-right Groups

French terror attacks

From gruesome stabbing inside a Nice church that killed three, a suspicious package being found inside St martin Church in Metz, the unrest in France roots from October 16, 2020, ‘terror attack’ when an 18-year-old beheaded French history teacher, Samuel Paty for showing Prophet Muhammad’s caricatures to his pupils. 

While paying tribute to the slain man, the French President had defended the nation’s brand of secularism along with its long-standing tradition of satire. He has vowed to “not give up cartoons” and added, “I am not going to change our laws because they shock elsewhere.”

“The fight of our generation in Europe will be a combat for our freedoms,” Macron said, adding that he believed they are being "overturned”.

Two days after a knife attack at a Catholic church in the French city of Nice, a Greek Orthodox priest has been shot outside a church in Lyon on October 31. While speaking to the Associated Press, a police official said that the priest is currently in a local hospital with life-threatening injuries after being hit in the abdomen. The incident came after a man armed with a knife killed three people in a church in Nice on October 29.

Read - Castex Announces Curfew Extension For France

Read - France To Expel Delivery Man Refusing Kosher Orders