Last Wednesday, the Bouches-du-Rhône police prefect demanded that the Bleuets mosque in Marseilles part company with Imam Ismail, on pain of closure of the place of worship.
Yesterday, Imam Ismail and his lawyers held a press conference to make public their counter-proposal: the imam would temporarily withdraw from the life of the mosque to look after his family and undergo training in secularism, and the mosque would remain open.
Today, Maître Guez-Guez, one of the imam’s lawyers, announced on X that this proposal had been accepted by Police Prefect Pierre-Édouard Colliex.
However, the imam’s lawyers, Maîtres Chekat and Guez-Guez, denounce what they call an “unequal arm wrestling match”, questioning “the competence of the Prefecture of Police to say what is good Islam and what is bad Islam”.
Imam Ismail is also being prosecuted for “apologie du terrorisme”, and will appear before the criminal court on October 3.
This conclusion to the Bleuets mosque affair comes against a backdrop of public silence from Muslim institutions, none of which have given their official support.
