A pro-Hamas group active in France will be dissolved for being “directly implicated” in the beheading of the history school teacher.
The decision to shut down the “Cheikh Yassine Collective,” which isnamed after the founder of the Gaza-based terror organization, will be taken at a cabinet meeting, said French President Emmanuel Macron.
The group’s founder and Islamist radical, Abdelhakim Sefrioui, is currently being held by police for publishing a video on YouTube insulting teacher Samuel Paty.
French authorities have launched a crackdown on Islamists in France after a 47-year-old history school teacher, Samuel Paty, was decapitated by a Chechen Muslim refugee in front of his school where he had shown caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed to students in a lesson about freedom of speech.
Stressing that “fear is going to change sides,” French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has ordered the closure of a mosque in Pantin, north of Paris, after it re-broadcast a video condemning the teacher Samuel Paty.
He said he would propose a ban on several organisations deemed “separatist” for seeking to bypass the secular institutions of the French republic.
Among those organisations, a pro-Hamas group active in France will be dissolved for being “directly implicated” in the beheading of the teacher.
The decision to shut down the “Cheikh Yassine Collective,” which is named after the founder of the Gaza-based terror organization, will be taken at a cabinet meeting, said French President Emmanuel Macron.
The group’s founder and Islamist radical, Abdelhakim Sefrioui, is currently being held by police for publishing a video on YouTube insulting Samuel Paty. He has been categorised by the French intelligence services as “S”, which means that he is regarded as a potential security risk.
“We must fight political Islam with the same determination as we fight terrorism,” said Darmanin.
Police have detained 10 people in connection with the attack, including the father of a 13-year-old student of the teacher, who had complained about the use of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad.
Darmanin said the two men had “clearly issued a fatwa” against Paty.
Investigators are seeking to find out how the attacker, 18-year-old Abdoullakh Abouyezidovitch Anzorov, who was shot dead by police, became motivated to carry out the murder, and what role was played by social media groups such as Facebook and Twitter.
French President Emmanuel Macron said “Islamists should not be able to sleep easy in our country.’’
Earlier this monthn Macron has already announced tighter controls on Islamist radicals. He announced that a draft law would be introduced before the end of the year to empower authorities to shut down associations and schools that he said indoctrinate children, and monitor foreign investment in religious organizations in France.
