France keeps tabs on extremist preachers

Authorities are closely monitoring about 10 Islamic prayer leaders suspected of extremist preaching in France, the national police chief said today.

Police are watching French imams “who do not have intentions that conform with the respect of democracy and want to participate in unacceptable acts”, said Michel Gaudin.

“We are going to … accentuate our research (and) work to detect the dangerous people,” he said.

Gaudin also echoed a recent pledge by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy that France will expel prayer leaders who preached hatred – and could strip them of their French nationality.

“They have no place in our country,” Gaudin said.

He said French authorities had noticed a surge in the number of false bomb alerts since the July 7 bomb attacks in London that killed 56 people and injured hundreds.