The mosque was closed for six months on charges of "defending jihad" in a sermon delivered by an imam in France
A mosque in the northern French city of Vaz has been shut down, with the imam defending jihad in his "extremist" sermons.
Local officials say the mosque, located in the Booh area, will now be closed for the next six months.
According to VAZ officials, in those sermons, those who fought in the name of jihad were called "heroes" and thus people were incited to hatred and violence.
In recent days, surveillance has been stepped up in mosques across France where officials have been accused of promoting extremist ideologies.
Two weeks ago, French Interior Minister Gerald Darman said he was launching an operation to close a well-known mosque in Boulevard. It is located 100 kilometers north of Paris. He said the reason was that the imams were targeting "Christians, homosexuals and Jews" in their sermons.
Authorities closed the mosque and demanded a response from the mosque's management within 10 days.
AFP news agency quoted a local newspaper as saying that the imam of the mosque had recently converted to Islam. A lawyer for the association, which is affiliated with the mosque, said the imam's statement was taken "out of context".
The lawyer says the imam was "speaking voluntarily" and has been suspended.
But the Interior Ministry says the man, who is being described as "occasionally a preacher, was in fact acting as a regular imam." He defended its (Islam's) supremacy.
Last year, France's interior minister announced a crackdown on mosques linked to extremism. He said mosques that would encourage separatist thinking could be closed.
It may be recalled that last year in France, a school teacher named Samuel Petty showed his students sketches about the Prophet of Islam after which he was killed. Three people were stabbed to death in a church in Nice after the incident. In both cases, there is the full support of French authorities, who have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online.
The French Interior Ministry says it has inspected about 100 mosques and places of worship in recent months. There are more than 2620 mosques in France in total.