France is not providing its Muslim citizens enough Mosques to pray in. This becomes evident especially during the holy fasting month of Ramadan when worshippers are forced to pray in the streets. “We don’t have enough room for worshipers in ordinary days let alone Ramadan, which see more and more Muslims flocking to mosques for Tarawih prayers,” Al-Hajj Amadou, an official with the Fatah Mosque in Paris’ 18th district, told IOL.
Calls to facilitate the construction of stately mosques in France, home to a sizable minority of nearly six million Muslim, have largely fallen on deaf ears. Rightists stand as the main roadblock and derail strenuous efforts made by Muslims to have a proper place of worship just like other communities in France. In Montreuil, plans for building a modern-style mosque was halted after a lawsuit won by far-right politicians. The building of a stately mosque in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille – home to 250,000 Muslims – was frozen in April following a similar lawsuit.