French MP: “Algeria wants to purchase the Grand Mosque of Paris”

Some French circles hostile to Algeria and to the Grand Mosque of Paris have requested the setting up of a special parliamentary commission to look into the funding meansand the possible takeover by Algeria of the Mosque of Paris.

The controversy was sparked off by the French Parliamentarian, namely Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, MP for the Essonne region and chairman of “France Rise-Up Movement” who declared that Algeria has begun a process of acquisition of the Paris mosque, through its embassy in the French capital, stressing that the French authorities should act and block such a move, as he put it.

On January 4th 2016, the French deputy himself filed the request for the creation of a parliamentary commission at the National Assembly and referred it to the Laws Commission.

On his website, the French MP wrote that the French state should control all important movements of funds meant for cults and proposed the creation of a national fund for cults’ financing under the close supervision of the state.

This national fund, he said, will be used to finance all places of worship of each religion while prohibiting any financing of cults and cult associations by foreign powers, adding that the mosque of Paris is part of the heritage of France and that it can in no way be transferred to another country, referring by the same token to Algeria.

The director of the General Administration of the Mosque of Paris, Mohamed Ouanoughi had previously explained in a statement to “Echorouk” that there is a reflection on the creation of a Foundation of the Mosque of Paris, by virtue of French law, for the protection of cult heritage in France in a bid to safeguard it from any forms of extremism.