France inspects dozens of mosques in crackdown on radical Islam

PARIS — French authorities will inspect dozens of mosques and prayer halls suspected of radical teachings starting today, as part of a crackdown on Islamist extremists following a spate of attacks, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin says.

Darmanin tells RTL radio that if any of the 76 prayer halls inspected is found to promote extremism, it will be closed down.

The inspections are part of the government’s response to two brutal recent attacks that shocked France — the October 16 beheading of a teacher who showed his pupils cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad and the stabbing to death of three people in a church in Nice on October 29.

Darmanin doesn’t reveal which places of worship will be inspected. In a note he sent to regional security chiefs, seen by AFP, he cites 16 addresses in the Paris region and 60 others around the country.

— AFP