France eyes ban on foreign fund for mosques

Valls urges a ‘new model’ for relations with Islam as he proposes temporary restrictions

French prime minister says he would consider a temporary ban on foreign financing of mosques, urging a ‘new model’ for relations with Islam |

France’s prime minister said yesterday he would consider a temporary ban on foreign financing of mosques, urging a “new model” for relations with Islam after a spate of militant attacks.

Manuel Valls, under fire for perceived security lapses around the attacks, also admitted a “failure” in the fact that one of the militants who stormed a church and killed a priest on Tuesday had been released with an electronic tag pending trial.

In an interview with French daily Valls said he was “open to the idea that — for a period yet to be determined — there should be no financing from abroad for the construction of mosques.”

Valls also called for imams to be “trained in France, not elsewhere.”

He said Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, whose portfolio also includes religious affairs, was working on building a “new model” for France’s relations with Islam.

Resignation calls

Both Valls and Cazeneuve have faced calls to resign after the second militant attack in less than a fortnight raised questions over France’s vigilance and preparedness.

The government has faced tough questions since it emerged that both church attackers had been on the radar of intelligence services and had tried to go to Syria.

Sparking particular ire was the revelation that one of the assailants, 19-year-old Adel Kermiche, had been released from prison while awaiting trial on terror charges after his second attempt to travel to Syria.

The electronically tagged Kermiche was allowed out of his home on weekday mornings, enabling him and his accomplice to storm a church in the Normandy town of SaintEtienne-du-Rouvray and slit the throat of 86-year-old priest Jacques Hamel at the altar.

Kermiche’s accomplice Abdul Malik Petitjean, also 19, had been on the security watch list since trying to reach Syria from Turkey.

The church attack came as the government was already facing a firestorm of criticism over alleged security failings after the Bastille Day truck massacre in Nice that left 84 people dead two weeks ago.

In the government’s first admission of failure since the two attacks, Valls acknowledged Kermiche’s liberty was a “failure, it has to be recognised”, adding that judges needed to take a “different, case-by-case, approach, given the militants’ very advanced concealment methods”.

But he said it was “too easy to hold judges responsible for this act of terrorism.”