A Muslim high school in Lille is challenging the termination of its contract with the French state in a legal battle after it lost public funding last year for supporting teachings “contrary to the values of the Republic.”
The Averroès Muslim High School will present its case before the administrative court on Tuesday, arguing it has experienced a significant drop in student enrollment, from 470 to 290, forcing the school to double tuition fees and launch an online fundraiser to stay afloat.
As reported by Le Figaro, the prefecture justified the suspension of state subsidies after an audit found the presence of religious texts in a Muslim ethics course that endorsed the death penalty for those who abandoned Islam and also supported gender segregation.
The audit also claimed there was insufficient coverage of LGBTQ+ topics and an imbalance in religious representation at the school’s library.
Additionally, authorities raised concerns over past Qatari financial contributions and the school’s refusal of an unannounced inspection in June 2022.
The school is understood to be relying on previous inspections conducted by the National Education Department that found no grounds to revoke the contract and a 2020 report from the General Inspectorate of National Education which concluded that “nothing” indicated the school’s teachings violated republican principles.
Despite this, administrative court rulings in February and July 2024 upheld the termination in preliminary hearings.
The school’s legal representative, Sefen Guez Guez, warned that the decision could lead to “a slow death of the school,” which offers several scholarships to Muslim students and reportedly enjoys impressive regional rankings in performance.
Education Minister Élisabeth Borne has defended the revocation of state subsidies, insisting it was based on “facts, both in the teaching that was delivered and in the remarks made by a certain number of officials of these establishments.”
