STRASBOURG: A controversial plan to use public money for building a mosque in Strasbourg stalled on Friday after the Turkish backers of the project dropped their request for a subsidy. The pullback came after Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin accused the eastern French city, led by Green mayor Jeanne Barseghian, of supporting “foreign meddling” on French soil with a planned subsidy for the mosque. The public money, €2.5 million, was to go to the Milli Gorus Islamic Confederation (CMIG), a pan-European movement for the Turkish diaspora. But in an op-ed piece in Dernieres Nouvelles d’Alsace, a regional paper, Barseghian said the group had now dropped its subsidy request because of a “need to consolidate their financing plan”. Darmanin last month asked the government’s top regional representative to file an administrative court complaint to stop the subsidy for the Strasbourg mosque.

Source: Libya Today April 16, 2021 09:45 UTC