Mosquée Al Islah de Villiers-sur-Seine
© Google MapsMosquée Al Islah de Villiers-sur-Seine
An Illegal Koranic school teaching up to 20 children as young as six was discovered inside a mosque, earlier attended by several extremists, in a Paris suburb. French prosecutors believe the children were at risk of being "turned into jihadist recruits."

The 'Little Bees School' was found during a police raid in Al-Islah mosque in Villiers-sur-Marne commune in Paris eastern suburbs on Wednesday. Some 40 police officers were involved in the operation, French media reported.

It was organizing Koran classes for some 15-20 children between six and 12 years old, Le Parisien newspaper reported. The classes were held for some two years.

"The investigation has confirmed the existence of a Koranic school, which was illegally teaching students and where [children] were at risk of indoctrination," the French interior minister said in a statement.


Comment: They'd better have some good evidence for that. Otherwise, this amounts to little more than busting a church group for running Sunday school and saying the kids were at risk of becoming radical Christian white supremacists.


At least three people have been arrested in connection to the case, including the imam of the mosque, the ministry added, calling to "fight radical Islamism by all legal means."

The children were in danger of "being turned into jihadist recruits," local prosecutors said, as cited by The Local.

Saïd Merabet, a spokesperson for the Al-Islah mosque claimed that the mosque didn't know about anything illegal happening during classes.

"We rented the school a big room on the first floor, but we were under the impression that everything was in order; three or four teachers took turns to teach class," he said. "We're low on funds. Renting out that classroom allowed us to pay the mosque's electricity bill."

He added that "people speak a lot of nonsense about" Al-Islah mosque, which is "demoralizing."

"We're not radical Islamists. Every Friday, our imam preaches about the need to fight extremism."

In April, some 12 people have been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for radicalization. They were all attendees of Al-Islah mosque. Among them was a 27-year-old mother, who had traveled with her three children to Syria to join her husband.

Villiers-sur-Marne commune was also a place of residence of Hayat Boumeddiene, a fugitive and a suspected accomplice of Amedy Coulibaly who killed four hostages in the kosher store and a police woman in Paris in January 2015.