New Delhi

The authorities in Northern France have ordered closure of a mosque as its Imam is alleged to have “defended jihad” and given radical sermons that violate the freedom of other French people. The mosque of Beauvais is located in Oise region, about 100 km from Paris. The local authorities have ordered its closure for at least six months.

Officials of Oise local government said the mosque Imam’s sermons called jihadist fighters "heroes" and incited hatred and violence.

According to BBC world, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said he was starting a process to close the Great Mosque of Beauvais because the imam was "targeting Christians, homosexuals and Jews" in his sermons.

Under the French law, the mosque authorities are given ten days times to respond to the notice for closure.

Local newspaper Courrier Picard said, the Imam who made allegedly illegal statements was a recent convert to Islam.

The mosque authorities said the Imam was not authorized to give sermons and he was speaking as a volunteer. Also the mosque has suspended him from his duties. However, the government claimed the said Imam was on the record "presented as an occasional speaker” and yet he had been acting as a regular imam."

The government has accused the Imam of "a rigorous practice of Islam" and "its superiority to the laws of the Republic".

The French government has tightened the grip on radical Islamists after last year’s incidents of the beheading of teacher Samuel Patty by his student and the fatal stabbing of three people in a cathedral in Nice. Both the incidents have been blamed on Islamist extremists.

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France's interior ministry said it had investigated around 100 mosques and prayer halls over such extremism in recent months, out of a total of more than 2,620 in France.