A French court ruled that a Muslim school could continue to receive state subsidies after local authorities in 2023 reduce funds on alleged “serious infractions” or teaching rules, said the court and their management.
Private schools can receive state subsidies in France under a contract with the Government, provided they are open to all students, and follow the state education guidelines.
The Averroes school, founded two decades ago in the northern city of Lille following the prohibition of the Muslim carpist in schools, regularly records in academic standards.
But the regional state authorities in November 2023 said that they argued that the Averroes school had received the illegal fine, and noticed a book that refers to the death penalty for the apostasy and the gender segregation that appears in a bibiography for teachers who give a class of Muslim ethics.
Georges-Francois Leclerc, the prefect that suspended the funds in December 2023, told a parliamentary investigation that he believed that the students were “in danger” and accused some teachers of having links with Islamism.
Read more: How do private schools work in France?
However, the administrative court of the city of northern Lille found on Wednesday that there was not enough evidence of any “serious infraction” in the education guidelines and that the procedure followed to reduce the funds had been “contaminated with irregularities.”
He said that the authorities had failed to demonstrate any “lack of cultural pluralism” in reading materials, any breach of guidelines in Muslim ethics classes, or any “illegal financing.”
The Averroes association directs the school welcomed the verdict, saying that it could now “calmly continue their work with students.”
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The inspectors of the National School had said in a 2020 report that they found nothing in disagreement with national education guidelines.
The high school says that it has seen its students fall from 470 to 290 since the funds cut.
Without additional financing, he says he was forced to double his rates and launch an online crowdfunding campaign to cover his general expenses for the academic year that began in September.
Under the secular system of France, teachers and students have not allowed us to use obvious religious simolons, including the carpist or Muslim Hijab, in public schools since 2004.
The Averroes high school is a strange private school where the Hijab is allowed.
The authorities of France are eager to avoid a spread of extremist Islamist ideas in a country that has been shaken by a series of mortal jihadist attacks.
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