National Rally leader Marine Le Pen, who could face French President Emmanuel Macron in a 2022 presidential election – has called for “wartime legislation” and an immediate moratorium on immigration. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron has promised that “fear is about to change sides” in a new anti-radical campaign.
French authorities are to close the Grand Mosque de Pantin as part of a clampdown on radical teaching that has seen 15 arrests following the murder of high school teacher Samuel Paty after he showed his pupils a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed.
The Mosque in Pantin, northeast of Paris, had reportedly published a video on its Facebook page days before Friday's murder, complaining about Paty's choice of material for a class discussion on freedom of expression.
The interior ministry said the mosque in Pantin, which is believed to have a congregation of around 1,500, would be shut on Wednesday night for six months.
The move comes after French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Monday that there would be “not a minute's respite for enemies of the Republic”.
Darmanin had asked regional authorities to carry out the mosque closure while police have launched a series of raids targeting miilitant networks.
Paty, 47, was attacked on his way home from the junior high school where he taught in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, northwest of Paris. A photo of the teacher and a message confessing to his murder was found on the mobile phone of…
