La Grande Mosquée de la Sounna

Why did La Grande Mosquée de la Sounna, a prominent place of worship in Marseille, become a subject of controversy and closure? Here, before its imposing doors, the story unfolds. La Grande Mosquée de la Sounna, a bustling center for Marseille’s Muslim community, faced a six-month closure order in December 2017. The reason? The French authorities deemed the sermons of its imam, El Hadi Doudi, too radical. Doudi, a 61-year-old Algerian, had led the mosque for nearly a decade. He was accused of promoting extremist views, including legitimizing armed jihad and the execution of adulterers and apostates. His words, preserved online, even targeted Jews with hateful labels. The prefecture claimed Doudi’s influence extended beyond La Grande Mosquée de la Sounna, reaching some twenty mosques across France. Several attendees of La Grande Mosquée de la Sounna had reportedly left for Syria or aligned themselves with Al-Qaeda. This fueled the authorities’ concerns and the decision to invoke the new SILT law, allowing the closure of places of worship deemed to incite violence or hatred. Ironically, Doudi had publicly condemned the 2015 Paris attacks alongside other French imams. He even received an acknowledgement letter from then-President François Hollande. However, the prefecture dismissed this as a mere formality, asserting that Doudi’s private pronouncements contradicted his public stance. The closure of La Grande Mosquée de la Sounna sparked outrage among its loyal attendees. They defended their imam and questioned the justice of penalizing the entire congregation for his alleged words. They saw the closure as an attack on their faith, highlighting their sense of being targeted. While Doudi admitted to writings that could incite hatred, his followers maintained their ignorance of any such rhetoric. They described him as eloquent and a skilled reciter of classical Arabic. Some suggested that older attendees appreciated his oratory skills while younger followers, drawn to his style, didn’t fully understand his Arabic sermons. Ultimately, La Grande Mosquée de la Sounna’s fate became entangled in a complex web of religious freedom, security concerns, and political discourse. The mosque’s closure served as a test case for the new SILT law and highlighted the growing tensions between Salafism and French authorities.