According to rahyafte (the missionaries and converts website):The decision has been take against Averroes school, the largest Muslim high school in the country, situated in Lille. This decision comes as authorities claim that the school’s curriculum is aligning too closely with Islamic values.
The move follows a recommendation from a consulting commission that raised questions about the school’s teachings on Muslim ethics. According to a report in Le Parisien, the commission found the school’s approach to Muslim ethics to be “in violation of French republican values.”
Inspectors from the commission took issue with what they perceived as an “excessive emphasis on Islam in courses on religion” and the absence of “LGBTQ content.”
The Averroes school, founded two decades ago, plans to contest the decision by filing an appeal with an administrative court.
The school, home to 800 students, half of whom receive state funding, has consistently demonstrated high academic standards. However, it came under scrutiny from local authorities after receiving a grant from Qatar in 2014.
This is while France’s national school inspectors, in a 2020 report, found no discrepancies with national education guidelines. Nevertheless, a report from the regional prefecture in November raised suspicions of illicit financing at the Averroes school and accused it of providing students access to materials that contradict “French values.”
Growing anti-Muslim hostilities
Many Muslimsfeel France – home to the largest Muslim population in Europe – has become more hostile towards them, especially after France suffered a string of deadly jihadist attacks in 2015.
In September, the education minister banned the abaya, the loose-fitting, full-length robe worn by some Muslim women, in public schools. Last year, a deportation order was given to an imam from the same area of northern France.
Averroes headmaster Eric Dufour said he had yet to receive notification from the interior ministry’s local office, but that the school intended to challenge the decision in administrative court.
“When it comes to republican values, we do more than any other school,” Dufour told Reuters last week in Lille, after he had been summoned to an education committee meeting in late November that made him fear the decision to end the school’s contract was coming.
Headmaster Dufour said that without public funding, the school would be unable to meet its budget needs.
“We would have to double fees for every family to hold on, which is out of the question,” he said.
Mohamed Daoudi said the main reason he chose Averroes for his 12-year-old son was its excellent results, and that he and other parents felt the interior ministry local office’s decision was an injustice.
“It’s really a witch-hunt,” Daoudi said. “It’s an injustice doubled with an insult.”
A project director in the tech industry, Daoudi said he had lived abroad for 15 years and was ready to leave again if the school were to close.
“I would rather put my kids in public school in Canada,” he said.
He added that he felt like it was part of a wider crackdown on France’s Muslim minority. “We do everything by the book, and we are still being pestered.”
