A partially built mosque in Strasbourg will not be constructed with French public money after organisers of the Turkish-backed project dropped a subsidy request amid intense controversy in France over the funding of religious buildings.
Local officials were criticised by the government after they approved a €2.5 million ($3m) grant for the French branch of the Turkey-based Mili Gorus Islamic Confederation – an Islamic political organisation for the Turkish diaspora across Europe – which is building the Eyyub Sultan Mosque.
It is thought the mosque could be the largest in Europe upon completion.
"We believe that this association is no longer able to be among the representatives of Islam in France," France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said of the Milli Gorus group on BFM television last month.
"We believe that this municipal authority should not be financing foreign meddling on our soil," he said.
Mr Darmanin’s deputy, Marlene Schiappa, welcomed the latest development and said she was delighted the money – which would have accounted for about 10 per cent of the final construction cost – would not “be financing an association that promotes political Islam”.
Strasbourg mayor Jeanne Barseghian said the funding had always been contingent on Mili Gorus signing President Emmanuel Macron’s new anti-extremism charter, which it had failed to do.
She said Mili Gorus had dropped the subsidy request, citing a "need to consolidate their financing plan”.
Despite an earlier vote supporting the funding in principle, Strasbourg would "therefore not, as things stand, pay a subsidy for the continuation of the construction of the mosque" Ms Barseghian wrote in local newspaper Dernieres Nouvelles d'Alsace.
Critics of the organisation say it is close to Turkey's leadership and fear Ankara meddling in French internal affairs when relations between the two countries are tense.
Since the beheading of French schoolteacher Samuel Paty last October, France has cracked down on foreign funding of mosques and groups it deems guilty of promoting extremism.
Mr Macron’s controversial anti-extremism charter seeks to stop the spread of political Islam and protect France’s secular values. But critics say it limits free speech and contributes to a climate of Islamophobia.
Mili Gorus rejects claims it answers to the Turkish government or pursues an Islamist agenda.