The French state has decided to end the contract linking it to the Averroès high school in Lille (north), thus ceasing to subsidize the main Muslim high school in France from the start of the 2024 school year, twenty years after its creation.
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Ranked among the best in the region, the Averroès high school will no longer benefit from its public subsidies from the start of the 2024 school year. This was decided by the prefect of the North, Georges-François Leclerc, who on December 7 ended the contract linking the Lille high school in the State. In the letter confirming this decision, he highlights incomplete educational resources, lessons “ in contradiction » with the values of the Republic, as well as opaque management and financing, so many “ serious breaches » which justify the termination of the contract with the State.
The president of Les Républicains of the Hauts-de-France regional council, Xavier Bertrand, welcomed “ a clear signal “against everything” compromise with republican values “. “ It’s been more than six years since I alerted the State to the presence of religion in this establishment “, did he declare. “ This shows that we must be extremely vigilant regarding all possible attacks on republican values. » Since 2019, a standoff has pitted the high school against the Hauts-de-France region, which each year refuses to pay the subsidy provided for under the contract, criticizing Averroès in particular for a Qatari donation of 950,000 euros in 2014. ” For an association contract, there must be trust », Declared Xavier Bertrand. “ The trust is not there. »
Teachings deemed contrary to the values of the Republic
The Lille establishment of 400 students, opened in 2003 with the support of the former Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF, now Muslims of France), in the wake of the ban on the veil in school places, had become in 2008 the first Muslim high school in France to go under contract. As such, it must welcome students without distinction of origin, opinion or belief and provide teaching consistent with that of public education.
Gold, according to the newspaper The Parisian who revealed the prefectural decision, the high school is particularly criticized for teaching described as contrary to the values of the Republic, particularly during Muslim ethics courses. Always according to The Parisianan inspection showed a lack of resources on certain themes such as homosexuality, and the preponderance of religious works on Islam to the detriment of other religions.
An advisory commission chaired by the prefect of the Northern department looked at both the financing and the content of the Muslim ethics course at the end of November. In his preliminary report to this commission, he noted in the bibliography of Muslim ethics teaching the mention of a collection of religious texts including commentaries advocating the death penalty for apostasy or segregation of the sexes.
A link with the Muslim Brotherhood disputed
This report included press extracts implicating teachers, and deplored “ an illicit financing system “, quoting a ” investigation opened by the Lille public prosecutor’s office » on loans granted to the school group by associations which then did not request repayment. Implicitly pointed out is the historical link between Averroès and the UOIF, an organization resulting from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood movement. “ No one apart from the prefectural authority says there is a link with the Muslim Brotherhood », Underlined at the end of November a lawyer for the school, recalling that no leader of the association managing the school had ever been heard, placed in police custody or referred to the criminal court.
National Education had carried out several inspections, without finding grounds to call into question the association contract. The General Inspectorate of National Education notably estimated in a 2020 report that “ Nothing » does not allow one to think “ that teaching practices (…) do not respect the values of the Republic “. High school officials announced at the end of November that they would take administrative action if a termination of the contract was decided.
(With AFP)