The mosque was shut down for promoting radical Islamist views, but its imam has resigned so that the mosque could reopen before the month of Ramadan. The interior minister has called on the prefect to take the necessary steps for the mosque s reopening.

In France, the fight against radical Islamisation has become a central political issue of late, with President Emmanuel Macron announcing in early October that the French government will take tough action against Islamism.

Precisely two weeks after the president s speech, an 18-year-old Chechen terrorist decapitated history teacher Samual Paty in broad daylight in a street. The professor s only sin was to have shown Prophet Muhammad caricatures – published earlier by the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo – to his students during a class on free speech.

At the end of October, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin ordered the six-month closure of a mosque in Pantin, an area boasting one of the highest migrant populations in Seine-Saint-Denis département near Paris. The move came after the mosque had shared a video on Facebook, inciting hatred against the teacher, recorded by Brahim Chnina, the father of a schoolgirl from the murdered teacher s class.

Since then, the schoolgirl s accusations against her ex-teacher have turned out to be a lie. She told her parents that Samuel Paty had sent all the Muslim students out of his class before presenting the drawings depicting Muhammad. The 13-year-old student, Z. Chnina, claimed that the teacher banned her from his classes for two days after she had refused to leave the classroom. Her father also reported this on one social media site in early October.

Later, however, all this turned out to be untrue. The girl never attended the class in question and the teacher had banned her due to behavioural issues. However, her father believed him unconditionally and incited against the teacher, which eventually led to the tragedy.

Thus, the mosque which was officially shut down in late October also played a role in the fatal attack against Samual Paty, because it also shared the video which caught the attention of the Chechen murderer, who later beheaded the professor in cold blood.

Following the events, the interior minister ordered the mosque of 1300 believers to be closed down, but the story took an unexpected turn. Rector M hammed Henniche, who has led the mosque since 2013 resigned, and announced that his post would be taken over by Drame Abderrahman.

According to press reports, the rector backed down to increase the mosque s chances of reopening before Ramadan, the biggest Muslim holiday. Earlier, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and County Prefect Georges-François Leclerc had made the reopening conditional on his resignation, as well as that of Ibrahim Doucoure, who had been removed earlier.

Mr Darmanin welcomed the replacement of the rector and tweeted that he had asked the county prefect to take the necessary steps to reopen the mosque. He also thanked the mayor of Pantin for his contribution.