France has announced to end financial
assistance for its biggest Muslim high school on the grounds of administrative
failures and questionable teaching practices, said a local official on Monday,
the latest in what some rights groups say is a wider crackdown on Muslims.
Private school Averroes, the first
Muslim high school to open in mainland France in 2003 in the northern city of
Lille, has over 800 pupils and has been under contract with the State since
2008. Pupils follow the regular French curriculum, and are also offered
religion classes.
But a report seen by Reuters in October,
the Interior Ministry’s local office said the school was facing administrative
and financial dysfunction and that some teaching did not align with French
republican values.
The Interior Ministry’s local office refuted
to provide more details on the contract termination.
Many Muslims feel France – home to the
largest Muslim population in Europe – has become more hostile towards them, particularly
after France suffered a string of deadly jihadist attacks in 2015.
In September, the Education Minister
banned the abaya, the loose-fitting, full-length robe worn by some Muslim
women, in public schools. Last year, a deportation order was given to an imam
from the same area of northern France.
Averroes headmaster Eric Dufour said he
had yet to receive notification from the Interior Ministry’s local office, but
that the school intended to challenge the decision in administrative court.
“When it comes to republican values, we
do more than any other school,” Dufour told Reuters last week in Lille, after
he had been summoned to an education committee meeting in late November that
made him fear the decision to end the school’s contract was coming.
And a 2020 Education Ministry inspection
report reviewed by Reuters said “nothing in the observations … allows (us) to
think teaching practices don’t respect republican values”.
The ministry didn’t immediately reply to
a request for comment.
Headmaster Dufour said that without
public funding, the school would be unable to meet its budget needs.
Agency
