There are the symbols we choose, and the coincidences that escape us. Friday January 7, Marlène Schiappa, Minister Delegate in charge of Citizenship, went to Beauvais (Oise) to attend the first signing by local associations of the Republican engagement contract which entered into force on 1is January, essential stone of the law consolidating the principles of the Republic – known as the law once morest separatism. The date was not chosen at random: it corresponds to the seventh anniversary of the attack on Charlie Hebdo and says all the will of Mme Schiappa to embody, within the government, an intransigent defense of secularism. She also takes the motherhood of this contract, modeled on the charter of secularism that she had put in place when she was Secretary of State for equality between women and men.
What is coincidental, however, is that the ministerial visit, completed by the arrival of the Secretary of State for Youth and Engagement, Sarah El Haïry, coincided with the day of weekly prayer. Muslim, while the great mosque of Beauvais has just been closed by a prefectural decree of December 27, 2021. In question, the radical sermons of a converted French imam who called for fighting “Christians, homosexuals, Jews”, glorified jihad and its “Fighters” qualified as “Hero”.
The great mosque of Beauvais, started in 2012 on the former SPA site, remains a concrete carcass surmounted by a large glass dome, in the industrial zone of the city. Due to lack of funding, the works dragged on and, in the meantime, the managing association welcomed the faithful in a large white hangar adjacent to the site, between a bus depot and the railway tracks.
“A very honest imam”
Friday, January 7, for the second week in a row, the gates of the temporary mosque were locked with a padlock. Not all the faithful are obviously aware of this. Like this young couple slowing down in their car, looking taken aback, before inquiring regarding the nearest open mosque. A man named Toufic is also surprised: “He is a very honest, very polite imam. He still defends France. He tells us not to touch drugs, to respect the laws, not to do anything stupid. Frankly, the state should congratulate this imam. “
Beauvais has three other mosques or prayer rooms. The closest is rue du Faubourg-Saint-Jacques. The long white facade, which faces the premises of the Communist Party, does not suggest a place of worship. The faithful enter through a small narrow door. But not the press: the imam does not want to express himself and his beadle sends us out for a stroll. “You have come to sow discord, we know you. You are talking nonsense, you are the terrorists. Get out of here! “ Only a faithful accepts to speak anonymously: “Frankly, I attended the sermons and nothing shocked me, the imam of the great mosque has never advocated violence. “
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