A French private education committee has overwhelmingly rejected an attempt by the Averroès Islamic school in Lille to restore its contract with the state, keeping the institution outside France’s publicly funded education system.
French authorities terminated the agreement after accusing the school of teaching material incompatible with republican values, obstructing official inspections and employing staff with alleged links to organisations associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Under the state contract, the privately operated school was permitted to retain its religious identity while teachers’ salaries were paid by the government.
Averroès, named after the Muslim philosopher Ibn Rushd, became France’s first Muslim secondary school to secure such an agreement in 2008. It was once presented as a model for integrating faith-based education into the French system.
The dispute began in 2023, when the regional prefect terminated the contract following an official report alleging that the school promoted teachings influenced by Salafism and lacked transparency over some sources of funding.
An administrative court initially overturned the decision. France’s Council of State later reinstated it on appeal, ruling that the school must first complete an administrative challenge before returning to court.
That process has now concluded, with the prefecture’s private education committee rejecting two appeals submitted by the school in July.
Textbooks draw scrutiny
According to a prefectural report reviewed by the French newspaper Le Figaro, pupils enrolled in an Islamic ethics course were assigned books containing passages described by authorities as violent and socially regressive.
The report said the material addressed gender equality, the supremacy of religious law, polygamy, relations with non-Muslims and jihad in ways that conflicted with the principles governing education in France.
One of the books reportedly opposed women and men mixing in the workplace and endorsed capital punishment for apostasy.
The teacher responsible for the course was also accused of describing French political institutions as hostile and criticising democracy. Authorities documented alleged links between three other teachers or administrators and the Islamic League of the North and Muslims of France, organisations identified by the French government as being associated with the Muslim Brotherhood current.
Education Ministry inspectors also reported finding student work displayed in school corridors that promoted conspiracy theories, including a claim that France’s Pasteur Institute created COVID-19. Other displays allegedly mocked republican principles.
Inspectors allegedly obstructed
The prefectural report also detailed an inspection conducted in June 2022 as a follow-up to an earlier visit in November 2021.
During the second inspection, officials said they faced organised obstruction from a member of the school’s management. Inspectors also reportedly discovered a file monitoring and classifying officials who had previously visited the institution.
The prefect described the discovery as a serious breach of the school’s obligations and said it was sufficient on its own to justify terminating the state contract.
Inspectors also said the school library contained no reference works on secularism or religions other than Islam. It reportedly held several books by preacher Hassan Iquioussen, who was deported to Morocco in 2022 after French authorities accused him of making antisemitic and misogynistic statements.
The school’s management has also been linked to an Islamic centre in Villeneuve-d’Ascq that Le Figaro described as a Muslim Brotherhood front in the Lille area. Mohamed Krat, a leader of the centre who also teaches at Averroès, has reportedly been convicted alongside others in a financial case, with the rulings upheld on appeal.
The school denies wrongdoing and is preparing to continue its legal challenge.
Its lawyer, Sefen Guez Guez, told Le Figaro that proceedings would resume before the administrative court, which previously ruled in the institution’s favour.
The latest decision therefore does not necessarily close the school. It leaves Averroès operating without its former state contract and funding while the dispute returns to the courts.
