Bobigny: a clandestine school welcoming dozens of children closed

From the outside, the place seems quite small, but the opaque bay window directly overlooking Avenue Edouard-Vaillant prevents you from seeing the size of the premises. On the entrance door is only written “Learn and understand”. And on the adjacent window, a question calls out to passers-by: “Do you feel like a void in your life? », followed by « Quran and Arabic language courses for women, adolescents and children, Institute of learning and understanding ».

This Thursday noon, the prefecture of Seine-Saint-Denis announced, as part of the “fight against radical Islam”, the closure of this establishment in Bobigny which offered Arabic and Koran lessons to women and children.

“Outside the law and republican principles”

On the social network Twitter, the prefecture describes the place as a “clandestine school bringing together in unspeakable conditions several dozen children outside the law and republican principles”.

Twenty pupils, of primary school age, were on the scene Thursday morning, according to a police source, adding that the total number could reach 80 schoolchildren. Some of them, aged “3-4 years” were “veiled”, she said.

The sanitary conditions were “deplorable”, the fire safety problems put “the lives of the children in danger” and the premises had no playground, continued the police source.

Parents with S

According to this same source, “some children and supervisors came from the Aulnay-sous-Bois school”, closed in January, and “several parents of students are known to be linked to radical Islam”. According to our information, parents are even on S.

In the neighborhood, the establishment was well known to local residents. “We often saw people coming, children, they were taking Arabic lessons. There have never been any problems with them”, agree several neighbors, who did not know the person in charge of the premises.

On the storefront and the Facebook page of Learn and Understand – which says it opened its premises in 2012 – no name of manager appears, only phone numbers. One of the people who picked up refused to answer our questions, as did the two women, dressed in niqab and the other in jilbab, who left the association’s premises on Thursday afternoon.

The town hall has no information on possible abuses

For its part, the town hall claims not to know this organization. “We just participated this morning in the security commission and found that it was not assured in these places”, says one in the entourage of the new mayor Abdel Sadi (PCF), adding that he does not have any information on any deviations from Learning and Understanding.

This closure comes just days after Emmanuel Macron’s offensive “against radical Islam” as part of the future bill against separatism. During his speech, the Head of State had in particular castigated the parallel schools which only teach prayers, taking advantage of a “worrying rise in school drop-outs”.

The post of the prefecture has in any case reacted to many Muslims on social networks, who have deplored the lack of information on this closure, fearing a stigmatization of associations promulgating courses in Arabic and studies of the Koran. “There has been real tension within the Muslim community since Emmanuel Macron’s speech. There was a police raid during an Arabic lesson in a mosque in the 11th arrondissement of Paris on Saturday. I do not know this Bobigny association, but there is a real risk of stigmatization of associations which give Arabic lessons, breathes M’hammed Henniche, secretary general of the Union of Muslim associations of Seine-Saint-Denis . It is not because you learn this language or study the Koran while being of immigrant origin that you are a terrorist. »

Since September 2018, around fifteen establishments, including clandestine schools, places of worship, sports halls and restaurants, have been closed in Seine-Saint-Denis according to a report presented in February by the prefect of the department.