Muslim-owned French publishing house faces closure

By Alaattin Dogru

PARIS (AA) – French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Friday announced the closure of the Muslim-owned publishing house Nawa, describing it as contrary to Western values and having separatist tendencies.

Taking to Twitter, Darmanin wrote: "I have started the termination process due to some of the works of the Islamist publishing house Nawa, in particular, legitimizing jihad.”

He noted that the necessary steps have been taken to freeze the assets of the publishing house and detain the managers of the place.

Le Figaro newspaper also reported that the Nawa publishing house was asked to close down "due to its anti-universal, separatist and anti-Western publishing line”.

Darmanin accused the managers of the publishing house, whose full name is the Nawa Center for Oriental Studies and Translation, of being "connected with jihadi extremists".

On its website, Nawa publishing house describes itself as an organization that aims to "promote the human and political sciences born of Islamic heritage" and "contribute to the revitalization of these disciplines by studying the Western world and sciences, modern political ideology and doctrines".

*Writing by Merve Berker