France: decision to close Islamic school in Nice overturned

The Administrative Court in Nice yesterday overturned an order to close the Avicenne Middle School in the French city. “Errors in the institution’s books do not justify taking such a final action,” said the court.

“Avicenne School emerged stronger from this ordeal,” insisted the school’s lawyer, Sefen Guez Guez. He added that he intends to return to court to denounce the rejection of the Islamic school’s requests to sign a contract with the state.

“We were informed of the Administrative Court’s decision, while the lack of transparency of the school’s accounts, which the court acknowledged, poses real problems in the eyes of the Separatism Law,” responded the department responsible for the closure decision.

The privately-funded school is located in a poor area in Nice and has around 100 Muslim students enrolled. The controversy has boosted the number of applications, with 130 already enrolled for the next academic year.

READ: Vote left or abstain: Muslims face stark election choice in France

The local authorities do not question the quality of education provided by Avicenne, which is confirmed by the success of the school’s students in secondary school and in public secondary schools. However, the 2021 law to combat separatism requires non-contracted institutions to inform the administration of the source of their funding. The school is part of the Alpes-Maritimes Muslim Union, which apparently made mistakes while responding to questions from officials.

The accounts were not properly prepared for a long time, and only the family names of the contributors were revealed, whether they were parents of students or donors. The first category pay €200 per student per month, and the school relies heavily on these fees to cover the budget.

“If the accounts and documents submitted by the Avicenne School for the years 2018 to 2022 contain errors and inaccuracies, they do not constitute violations that justify the final closure of the institution,” explained the court.

The decision to close Avicenne School was announced on 26 February by the Minister of National Education, Nicole Belloubet, and had to be implemented by 14 March.

France is now preparing for the second round of its national legislative election. The first round took place on Sunday, and was led by far-right parties which have adopted hostile positions against French Muslims. The National Rally and its allies led the first round of voting with 33.14 per cent of the votes, and 39 representatives from the party elected. The left-wing New Popular Front received 27.99 per cent of the votes, while President Emmanuel Macron’s camp came in third place by a large margin, with 20.8 per cent.

READ: Far-right French party leader threatens tough approach against immigrants, mosques