The police prefecture considers that the measures taken by the imam are not sufficient given the facts of which he is accused and is now asking the mosque to separate from him in order to remain open.
The Bouches-du-Rhône police prefecture, which began administrative closure proceedings at the end of August for the Bleuets mosque in Marseille, remains firm. After meeting with the defense of the imam of the place of worship and the mosque’s leaders, police prefect Pierre-Édouard Colliex believes that the only way to keep the mosque open is to remove imam Smaïn Bendjilali.
In a letter that BFM Marseille Provence was able to consult, confirming information from Le Figaro, the prefect granted the president of the association Les Bleuets “a period of five days” to inform him whether the mosque would “definitively separate from Mr. Bendjilali, the only measure capable of avoiding the closure of the place of worship.”
Not enough “to put an end to the unrest observed”
However, the imam had taken several “corrective measures” to prove his good faith, while he was accused by the State of relaying remarks “legitimizing violence” and of holding speeches that were progressively “politicized”, in particular by fighting against “state Islamophobia”.
This included removing certain online publications “as a measure of appeasement”.
The cleric must also enroll at university to obtain a diploma in “Secularism and Values of the Republic.” He also deleted his contentious posts on social networks and announced the affiliation of the mosque to the Departmental Council of the Muslim Faith.
“I cannot at this stage consider that these measures are sufficient to put an end to the disturbances observed in the operation of the mosque,” replied the police prefect.
The prefect considers that the measures announced do not live up to the “remarks and positions reproached” to Smaïn Bendjilali, which he considers “old and constant”, demonstrating “his roots in a radical practice of Islam which creates a breeding ground for the commission of violent acts”, writes Pierre-Édouard Colliex in his letter.
No measures prevent recidivism, says the prefect
Regarding university registration, the police prefect considers that the diploma “will not produce its effects until its term ends in nine months at best”. The affiliation of the mosque to the Council of the Muslim Faith of Bouches-du-Rhône “seems insufficient to him, given its low representativeness”.
Pierre-Édouard Colliex also notes that “none of the measures announced have come into force to date, with the exception of the deletion of publications reported by (the prefecture services, Editor’s note)”.
Finally, the police prefect is calling for the imam to be effectively replaced because none of the measures “guarantees that he will not repeat such remarks.”
Juliette Moreau Alvarez and Cindy Chevaux
