French far-right groups block Great Mosque plans
Wednesday, April 18, 2007 A French court Tuesday ordered construction work on a mosque in the Mediterranean port of Marseille to be suspended in response to legal action by far-right groups. The court found in favor of the National Front (FN), the Movement for France (MPF), and the National Republican Movement (MNR), who accused the city of granting a veiled subsidy for the mosque's construction, violating French law on the separation of Church and state.
Moulay Abderrahmane Ghoul, regional head of the French Council for the Muslim Religion, denounced the far-right lawsuit as a "xenophobic and racist political act," but said "the city's will to build the mosque" was not in question. But the MNR hailed the decision as a "judicial and political victory ... against the Islamization of France." And Philippe de Villiers, presidential candidate for the Catholic nationalist MPF, welcomed the ruling, calling for a moratorium on all mosque constructions and a charter "imposing respect for the laws of the republic on Islam."