CONTROVERSY. The Muslim conference in Avignon will ultimately not take place, we explain why
A Muslim conference was to be held in Montfavet, in the Vaucluse, on Sunday 27 November. The prefecture requested the cancellation of the event. The reason: the presence of the logo of a dissolved association on the poster.
It all started with the initial poster announcing the famous conference. Published on social networks on November 3, the poster presented the list of main guests, practical information about the conference… and at the very bottom, a fine banner containing several association logos.
One of them represents BarakaCity, association dissolved by decree in the Council of Ministers on October 28, 2020 Following the assassination of Samuel Paty.
A few days later, far-right activist Damien Rieu, co-founder of the Generation Identity movement, shared the poster on Twitter with this message: “Despite its dissolution, Baraka City organizes a large Islamic meeting in Avignon.”
The publication is massively relayed on Twitter. 1,117 shares, 1,437 “likes”. The following day, November 10, the Vaucluse prefecture published a press release in which the prefect Violaine Démaret requested the cancellation of the event given “of the troubles that this event is likely to cause”.
“The organizers claim the support of the BarakaCity association, dissolved by decree in the Council of Ministers, on October 28, 2020, because it propagates hateful, discriminatory and violent ideas”is it written in the press release.
In case of refusal on the part of the organizers, the association D’Clic Valence, the prefect indicates that a “administrative prohibition” would be educated.
In response to this press release, on November 11, the association explains that the presence of the logo on the poster is “a mistake” from their graphic designer “who has not updated the latter by taking up an old poster from the time when the NGO was still active”.
On its networks, D’Clic indicates that the event is maintained, and that the poster has been updated, all logos having been removed.
The president of the association, who prefers to remain anonymous, indicates that the prefecture did not seek to contact the organizing team before making a decision.
A few days later, Violaine Démaret is invited to the microphone of France Bleu and reaffirms her position. “The damage is done. I maintain my position. I’m not going to conduct an investigation to verify whether or not it’s a graphic designer’s error”.
For the prefecture, the withdrawal of the disputed logo “don’t change the situation”. “As soon as this logo has been clearly visible and identified, that it refers to an association which has been dissolved for incitement to hatred in the context of the assassination of a professor, the disorder is in fact created, hence the maintenance of the wish for cancellation formulated by the prefect of Vaucluse”.
Monday, November 20, a week before the conference, the association D’clic announces on Facebook that it will not take place, “due to pressure from the public authorities.
“We have seen all the rooms that were to welcome us in Avignon cancel their rental. (…) From now on we know that a tweet from the RN on Avignon is enough to carry away the whole administration.
The conference is “postponed to a later date”says D’Clic. “We have always had events, in Lyon, Saint-Etienne, Valence, Marseille, Grenoble… it has always gone well”assures the president of the association.
According to the organizers, the prefecture would have “put pressure on various venue rental establishments not to [leur] rent their establishments”.
The president of the association indicates that one of the managers would have been “summoned to the police station”, “a whole afternoon.”
The prefecture denies these allegations. “The contacts made between the security services and the hall managers consisted in recalling the public position of the prefect, namely the implementation of an administrative ban in the event of the organization of this event”.