Muslims pray in Paris streets to protest mosque closure

Clichy City Hall was planning to turn rented prayer hall into multimedia library

Hundreds of Muslims took to the streets of Paris, laid out their prayer mats, and bowed down in prayer to protest the closure of their prayer hall.

France is facing a serious shortage of mosques to cater to its large Muslim community which is estimated at 5 million people. The throngs of Muslims which lined up to pray, highlights the long-standing issue faced by France's Muslim community.



Clichy City Hall was planning to turn the rented prayer hall, which was used by Muslims, into a multimedia library for the town’s 60,000 residents.

Officials said that the community members could pray at a “new Islamic cultural and prayer centre” which the town inaugurated in 2016. It Islamic centre was already used by hundreds of people, insisted the Clichy City Hall.

Further, far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has criticised such street prayers to fuel her anti-immigrant, anti-Islam stance.



A far-right French mayor, in December last year, was grilled over hate charges over comments that include a claim the number of Muslim students in his city was a “problem”.

This article originally appeared on the Hindustan Times