France closes Muslim Shia center on grounds of terrorism

CAIRO – 18 October 2018: French authorities issued Wednesday an Official decree to close the Shia Muslim center “Zahra France”, located in Grande-Synthe north of France, and freeze its assets for six months.

The decree was preceded by a police raid on the organization premises on October 2, where 11 members of the organization were detained and questioned. The raid took place on the grounds that the organization supports terrorist groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine.

The French police departments issued a statement then explaining the reasons behind the security raids on the Shia center, accusing the group of promoting ideas and ideologies against the French Republic’s values, besides supporting terrorist groups.

Zahra France center was founded in 2005, its activities focused on social and religious aspects, However the founder of the center, Yahia Gouasmi, started a political party in 2009 which ran for the European elections then, the party was accused of adopting anti-Semitic ideas by other French parties.