A state-run French school – the Averroès high school in Lille has come under radar on allegations of spreading radical Islam and jihadism amongst Muslim population in the country.
According to French newspaper the Société, the first private Muslim high school under contract continues to make headlines. At the beginning of May, those responsible for the neighboring Villeneuve-d’Ascq mosque were placed in police custody, in particular because of a fraudulent loan granted by the Islamic center to the Averroès high school. Their lawyer told Le Figaro that the loan, part of which was never repaid, was aimed at bailing out the high school coffers thanks to donations from the faithful. The cash flow of the latter, according to Me Mehdi Ziatt, was affected by the refusal of the Hauts-de-France region to pay in 2020 its annual subsidy to the high school (subsidy finally paid following a decision of the Council of State).
And even if the educational project soberly refers to “universal Muslim values”, Averroès’ commitment to republican values is unquestionable – but unfortunately only on paper. The school repeatedly emphasizes its attachment to “republican values,” “education for citizenship” and “civic spirit”, which are mentioned again and again in its texts. In November 2020, the school had extensively reported on a tribute paid by the students to Samuel Paty.
However, the regional audit chamber underlines the discrepancy between this striking rhetoric and the reality of religious education at the Collège and Lycée Averroès. This concerns in particular the curriculum and the reading offered as part of a voluntary course on Muslim ethics.
One of the books covered in the second grade has called out prosecutors in particular. The book contains a number of political and social rules that the believer must abide by, such as the prohibition of mixed teams in the workplace or the prohibition for a sick woman to be examined by a man.
Finally, the book, which calls for referring to “the law of Allah and nothing else” in all disputes, condemns apostasy, which is presented as a crime worthy of death: Whoever ceases to be a Muslim “must be executed according to the legal punishment provided for apostasy”.
Almost every year, the Lycée Averroès is nearing the 100% pass rate at the baccalaureate. Averroès has to rely, unreasonably, on the generosity of its private donors, who either donate directly or grant interest-free loans, sometimes followed by a debt waiver. In total, these donations amount to around 6 million euros over the ten years of the financial year, a large part of which comes from abroad, via funding from Qatar (which the journalist for Le Figaro Georges Malbrunot in particular has highlighted in his book Qatar Papers 2019), or even via money collected from mosques in Germany and the Netherlands. The institution also depends on public subsidies, which have amounted to more than 6.5 million euros since 2010. Public funds and private donations each account for more than a quarter of Averroès’ income, whose turnover is far from sufficient to ensure the institution’s self-financing. This business model “therefore appears structurally unbalanced and unsustainable in the long term” for the prosecutors.
The audit of Averroès’ accounts also revealed numerous errors or irregularities which, taken together, gave the impression of sometimes careless management of the association’s funds.
