World News – GB – France dissolves the Muslim NGO BarakaCity

The French government disbanded the French Muslim charity BarakaCity on Wednesday, government officials said, amid high tensions in the country following the murder of a teacher earlier this month

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin confirmed on Twitter that the NGO was closed during a Council of Ministers meeting on Wednesday

Darmanin justified this decision on the NGO’s alleged links with the « radical Islamist movement » and its « pleasure in justifying terrorist acts » – accusations rejected by BarakaCity

Details exposed in the decree shared by Darmanin accusing BarakaCity and its founder Idriss Sihamedi of « disseminating hateful, discriminatory and violent ideas » via his accounts on social networks

The decree also referred to a 2016 television interview in which Sihamedi refused to condemn the Islamic State (IS)

BarakaCity, which operates in at least 26 countries, said it was banned after years of « appalling slander and lies »

« The attached decree is a web of lies, and many of these claims have already been refuted by your intelligence services who have proceeded to reject them! » the organization wrote on Twitter

Sihamedi also took to Twitter to address Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and seek asylum for himself and his staff, who he said had received death threats

« We are taking the last steps in France (even if they are slim) and doing everything possible to move our headquarters to a country that respects Muslims and the vulnerable, » he added.

The decision to ban BarakaCity comes as French authorities launched a crackdown on the murder of Samuel Paty, a teacher who was beheaded by an 18-year-old Chechen refugee after showing his students a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad during a course on freedom of expression

Besides the arrests, Darmanin and other French officials announced their intention to dissolve a number of organizations suspected of supporting Islamic State-type ideologies

A number of French legal experts warned last week that calls to dissolve these organizations would likely face legal challenges

Speaking to France Inter radio on October 20, civil liberties legal expert Nicolas Hervieu warned that despite the « race » to announce firm measures, many decisions of this type could end up being contested before the Council of State if they did not go through due process

« We cannot dissolve an association just because we do not agree with its views, » he said « Mere political animosity is not enough There must be clear and direct calls for violence, hatred and discrimination, and not indirectly or through links here and there « 

Anger has mounted in a number of predominantly Arab and Muslim countries following measures taken by France in the wake of the October 16 attack, as Erdogan launched calls to boycott French products

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