WAR ON TERROR
France vows to shut nearly 80 mosques in massive crackdown on religious extremism after string of terror attacks
FRANCE has vowed today to shut almost 80 mosques in a massive crackdown on religious extremism after a string of terror attacks.
The nation's interior minister Gerald Darmanin said there would be "massive and unprecedented" new measures to fight terrorism.
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He wrote on Twitter today: "76 mosques are now suspected of separatism. In the coming days, checks will be carried out on these places of worship. If ever these doubts are confirmed, I will ask for their closure."
He added that 66 illegal immigrants suspected of being "radicals" had been deported from France.
The government has also dissolved groups which it alleges are linked to "radical" networks, including the Collective Against Islamophobia in France. The group denies the allegation.
The move comes after a spate of terrorist attacks in the country in recent weeks, including the beheading of a teacher who used cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed to teach a history class.
Since the attacks, President Emmanuel Macron has frequently spoken out to defend free expression and vowed that France would not "give in to any spirit of terror".
The issue of Islamism in France has been under renewed focus since the murder of history teacher Samuel Paty in a Paris suburb on October 16.
Paty was attacked and beheaded after using cartoons from satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to teach his students about the importance of free speech.
The magazine was the target of a 2015 Islamist attack in which 12 people were killed after it printed cartoons depicting Mohammed.
Visual depictions of the Prophet are forbidden in some sects of Islam.
Less than two weeks later, three people were killed in a knife attack at the Notre-Dame basilica in the southern French city of Nice.
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In September, two employees of a press agency were seriously injured in a knife attack in front of the former Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris.
Macron's defence of the right to free expression since Paty's killing has prompted protests and calls for boycotts of French products in a number of Muslim-majority countries.
Dramatic pictures have showed images and effigies of Macron being burned at large demonstrations in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Indonesia.
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