CITIZENSHIP The Minstre of Interior visited this Saturday at a mosque in Saint-Ouen Alms …
“The Republic needs more than ever, commitment of all Muslims of France,” said Bernard Cazeneuve on Saturday, invited to share a “tea brotherhood” at the mosque in Saint-Ouen Alms (Val -d’oise), during open days.
Throughout France, Saturday and Sunday, the call of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), the mosques open their doors to all citizens to exchange and share a “tea of brotherhood.”
Thé de la fraternité cet après-midi à Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône pour la journée portes ouvertes des mosquées de France pic.twitter.com/0gHEwhvM3S
— Bernard Cazeneuve (@BCazeneuve) January 9, 2016
France needs all its children
The Interior Minister welcomed this “highly symbolic dimension that refers to living together in the Republic” in a difficult environment for Muslims, often stigmatized ago the attacks in January and November 2015. “When barbarian youth strike irrespective of religion, the first to suffer in terms of their religion image degradation are Muslims who love the Republic “, said the minister, adding that the country” does not make mistakes “and refuses amalgams.
“Faced with a very high threat of terrorism, we need more than ever to defend the Republic, all the children of France,” he added. Bernard Cazeneuve recalled being “viscerally committed to the principle of secularism,” which means that everyone is free to practice his religion, and condemned “foolish acts” in recent weeks against the Muslim places of worship.
The self-proclaimed imams in the viewfinder
The Minister also stressed the need “to ensure that those who teach religion in mosques are trained.” “I refuse that there is in the mosques of France self-proclaimed imams, preachers of hate, and I will make proof against them of greater severity,” said Bernard Cazeneuve, adding that some had already been expelled. “I assume and I will continue.”
Regarding the problems of radicalization, the minister said that things were going “in the right direction” and said he had invited the various institutions in February for a new dialogue meeting to fight against this phenomenon. The mosque of Saint-Ouen Alms was inaugurated there just eight months, after years of waiting on the part of the Muslim community for a place of worship.
