France to ban radical groups after beheading of history teacher

Financial Times

Islamist killing prompts French crackdown on militants

Macron government to ban radical groups after beheading of history teacher

by Victor Mallet

President Emmanuel Macron’s government has launched a crackdown on Islamists in France after the decapitation of a history teacher by a Chechen Muslim refugee, questioning dozens of militants suspected of promoting violence and announcing plans to ban radical organisations.

“Islamists should not be able to sleep easy in our country,” Mr Macron said after an emergency inner cabinet meeting at the Elysée Palace on Sunday with Jean Castex, the prime minister, and Jean-François Ricard, the anti-terrorism prosecutor. “Fear is going to change sides.”

Gérald Darmanin, interior minister, said on Monday he had ordered the closure of the Pantin mosque in Seine-Saint-Denis north of Paris after it re-broadcast a video condemning the teacher Samuel Paty.

He also said he would propose a ban on several organisations deemed “separatist” for seeking to bypass the secular institutions of the French republic, including the Collective against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), and a humanitarian aid group called BarakaCity.

“You can see how political Islam combines with radical Islam and so eventually leads to terrorism,” Mr Darmanin said on Europe 1 radio. “We must fight political Islam with the same determination as we fight terrorism.” He said 51 organisations would be inspected by the state this week.

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