The courts have annulled a prefectural order to close a Muslim college in Nice. The authorities had criticised the Avicenne college, located in a disadvantaged area, for the opacity of its accounts in particular.
The Avicenne Muslim college in Nice will be able to welcome its students back next year, with the Nice administrative court confirming in its judgment on Tuesday that accounting errors did not justify a prefectural closure order.
“Avicenne has emerged stronger from this ordeal,” rejoiced the college’s lawyer, Me Sefen Guez Guez, who intends to return soon before the administrative court to contest the refusal of the establishment’s requests to switch to a contract with the State.
“The prefecture acknowledges the decision of the administrative court while considering that the opacity of the establishment’s accounts, recognized and admitted by the court, poses real problems with regard to the law on separatism,” the prefecture responded in a short press release.
When controversy boosts applications
Located in a disadvantaged area of Nice, this private, non-contractual college opened in 2016 and has around a hundred students. The controversy having boosted applications, it will increase to 130 next year with the opening of a second 6th grade class.
The authorities do not question the quality of the education provided, confirmed by the success of students in the brevet and then in public high schools.
But the 2021 law against separatism requires non-contract establishments to inform the administration of the origin of their funding, and the Avicenne association, an offshoot of the Union of Muslims of the Alpes-Maritimes (Umam) and manager of the college, has struggled to respond to requests.
The tables were not in the required form for a long time, and the last ones only mentioned the surnames of the contributors. With families paying 200 euros per month per student, the association relies heavily on donations to balance its budget.
“If the tables and documents provided by the Avicenne association for the years 2018 to 2022 contain errors and inaccuracies, these irregularities noted are not (…) of a nature to justify the definitive closure of the establishment”, concluded the administrative court in its judgment on the merits.
The decision to close Avicenne was announced on February 26 by the Minister of National Education Nicole Belloubet and ordered on March 14 by the prefect Hugues Moutouh.
“We are subjected to separatism when we would like to integrate the system”
Avicenne officials had then denounced “harassment”. At the beginning of June, the director of the college, Idir Arab, had also mentioned “a feeling of injustice”: “You have a small project that works in a neighborhood where everything is collapsing, why go and close it?”
Especially since the college has been asking since 2019 to enter into a contract with the French state, which implies even more extensive control by public authorities.
An inspection in the fall of 2020 criticized the absence of a physics-chemistry laboratory and a lack of infrastructure for physical education.
Since then, the laboratory has been fitted out and slots reserved for the swimming pool or other structures, but the rectorate has not given any further news. Contacted by AFP, it did not wish to comment.
“We are subjected to separatism when we would like to integrate the system,” regretted Mr. Arab, summarizing his speech to the students: “You are French, you are going to show the world that you exist and that we need you.”
Teachers of all faiths
At Avicenna, students follow the official curriculum, with an additional 1.5 hours of Arabic and 1.5 hours of Muslim ethics. The dress codes are very diverse and the teachers are of all faiths.
“I want Lamartine, Victor Hugo, Pasteur and logarithms,” explained Otmane Aissaoui, president of Avicenna and Umam. “You want to be an imam, it’s not Avicenna!”
In its closure order, the prefecture also pointed out discrepancies around loans transformed into a donation totaling 476,000 euros in favor of the college. Or a loan granted by the college to one of its donors.
The Nice public prosecutor’s office, contacted in December by the prefect, opened a preliminary investigation for breach of trust. But according to Me Guez Guez, no investigator has contacted Avicenne until now.
