In response to the beheadings of Christians by Muslims in Paris and Nice, the French government launched a “massive and unprecedented” wave of measures to combat what it calls Islamic “extremism,” targeting 76 mosques suspected of “separatism.”

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Thursday tweeted his interview with RTL radio, writing: “In the coming days, checks will be carried out on these places of worship. If ever these doubts are confirmed, I will ask for their closure.”

In 2015, Kalashnikov ammunition and Islamic State propaganda videos were seized in raids following the closure of a mosque in the Paris suburb of Lagny-sur-Marne, around 30 kilometers (18 miles) east of the capital. Stringent measures were called for by French Muslims in the same year the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris left at least 130 people dead and hundreds more wounded. The proposals included handing out permits that tested imams on adherence to French secular principles and theological knowledge, requiring them to “respect the laws of the republic.”

In 2018, Austria closed seven mosques and expelled imams because of their inflammatory jihadist teachings. Last month, Austrian officials admitted ‘intolerable mistakes’ were made in intelligence checks on the Vienna jihadist as armed police raided the city mosques that ‘furthered the radicalization’ of 20-year-old jihadist Kujtim Fejzulai before he killed four people.  

Mosques Incubators of Hatred

France is home to the largest Muslim minority population in Europe and French President Emanuel Macron has shown that he is no longer afraid to confront the Islamic problem. In October, Macron laid out a plan to tackle what he termed “Islamist separatism,” as he described Islam as a religion in crisis across the world. In essence, he has realized that Muslims must be dealt with separately than the rest of the population so long as they believe in the tenets of sharia law, which calls for the Islamization of society.

On October 20, France ordered the temporary closure of a mosque outside Paris as part of a crackdown on people who are suspected of inciting hatred, after the killing of teacher Samuel Paty, who had shown his class caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

The Grand Mosque of Pantin, in a low-income suburb on the capital’s northeastern outskirts, had shared a video on its Facebook page before the attack that vented hatred against Paty, who was beheaded in broad daylight near his school.

Since the beginning of the seventh century, when the Prophet Muhammad began his mission, militant Muslim leaders have been waging a universal jihad around the world for the purpose of Islamic domination. The percentage of peaceful or moderate Muslims was never a determining factor in holy war because peace and moderation are not congruent with the totalitarian directives of Islamists political goals. As history has shown, its truculent leaders have continually followed the totalitarian mandates of universal jihad contained in them.

A mosque, to the common observer, is the physical place designed for Muslims to worship Allah. Yet throughout Islamic history the mosque has been the gathering place for the community of Allah’s faithful. Although all men are expected to pray inside a mosque, especially on a Friday (yawm al-jumu’a), they are not obligated to do so, since they can fulfill their duty anywhere they see fit. Keeping in line with male superiority, women are segregated in a separate area or are encouraged to stay at home to pray. A mosque, at the same time, represents something absolutely and radically different from a mere Muslim church or temple.

While it cannot be said that every mosque is an incubator for jihadist operations, a random survey of mosques in the United States, for example, showed that about 80% of them were complicit in promoting violence—this in no way shape or form warrants hatred or violence against Muslims nor the vandalizing or physical destruction of mosques.

Western Failure in Embracing Islam

A peaceful “cohabitation” between the Christian West (whatever may be left of it) and Islam has been shown to be historically destructive. Unlike Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán, Western leaders have continually turned a blind eye to this. More so, numerous mosques are being built by countries like Saudi Arabia, which have become hotbeds of extremism. As former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia Sir William Patey said two years ago, Saudi Arabia has been funding mosques throughout the West that teach extremism, “which may down the road lead to individuals being radicalized and becoming fodder for terrorism.” 

While both Austrian and French government crackdowns have left some Muslims feeling increasingly alienated in their respective countries, it must be understood that Islam as a socio-political entity is incongruent with a democratic society. This is because the Prophet of Islam did not propose a new social doctrine but rather a moralistic exigency, which was materialized into an Arab civitas—a self-reliant and independent nation-state—with the mandate to proliferate Allah’s kingdom throughout the whole world, to every nation.

France has thus far deported 66 Muslims who have shown to adhere to the Islamic globalist agenda as dictated by the sharia. For the time being, deporting sharia-minded Islamists and shutting down of their mosques are the only viable solutions that would ensure a peaceful coexistence with Muslims who accept to live according to the laws of the western countries that host them.

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Mario Alexis Portella is a priest of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Florence, Italy. He has a doctorate in canon law and civil law from the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome; he also holds a M. A. in Medieval History from Fordham University, as well as a B.A. in Government & Politics from St. John’s University. He is also author of Islam: Religion of Peace? – The Violation of Natural Rights and Western Cover-Up.

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