Paris Grand Mosque Responds To Hostile Campaign Waged By French Right-Wing Platforms

The Grand Mosque of Paris was compelled to issue a statement responding to a campaign it faced from French right-wing media outlets, following a lecture by French historian and writer, Gabriel Souleyka, in which he likened the horrendous crimes committed against the Algerian people during the brutal French occupation to Nazi crimes in World War II.

A statement from the Grand Mosque on its “X” account, published on Tuesday, January 20, 2026, read, “The Grand Mosque of Paris expresses its deep dismay at the recent controversy stirred up by some anti-Muslim media outlets, which this time accuse our institution of being a channel for spreading anti-Semitic and Holocaust denial theses, targeting an excerpt from a lecture by the writer and historian, Gabriel Souleyka, , organized and broadcast live on ‘YouTube’ on November 19, 2025.”

In a video clip and press release published on Tuesday, January 20, 2026, in response to these accusations, Gabriel Souleyka stated that he made “an error in expression, referring to a number equivalent to the victims of the Auschwitz camp” when he spoke of one million dead, according to the statement, which affirmed that “the Holocaust is a genocide that claimed the lives of six million Jews, and any attempt to diminish, relativize, or deny it is morally and historically unacceptable, and must be systematically combated.”

The Mosque clarified in its explanatory statement, titled “In the Face of Anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial,” that the writer was invited to deliver his first lecture at the Grand Mosque of Paris in May 2024 to present his previous novel, “Soul Stealers,” which tells the story of a woman deported to the horrors of the Auschwitz camp.

It noted that “anti-Semitism is contrary to Islam, and a Muslim cannot be anti-Semitic if they are committed to their religion, principles, and values. The Mosque has fought, and will continue to fight, against this poison and against all forms of hatred and racism that undermine national cohesion.”

The French historian had made a comparison between the victims of the Algerian War of Liberation and the victims of the Nazi Holocaust, stating that 1.5 million Algerians died during an eight-year war, the longest in the 20th century, and noted that this number “exceeds the one million Jewish victims who are constantly referred to.” These phrases were exploited by some right-wing media outlets in France, presenting them as a minimization of the Holocaust.

Right-wing and far-right politicians in France and their media platforms often attack the Grand Mosque of Paris, especially amidst the escalating political and diplomatic crisis between Algeria and Paris.

This time, they found in the lecture by French historian Gabriel Souleyka an outlet to escalate their hostile stances towards this religious institution, which receives its funding from Algeria.