UMP mayor Jean-Pierre Door has fined the Montargis Muslim community 35 euros. He used his status as a police officer to fine those who had distributed roses to passerby without his authorization. Montargis’s Muslim community, associated with the Islamic Confederation of Millî Görüs, had asked several days in advance to set up a stand in the city’s center to distribute flowers. The mayor prohibited the event. The city’s spokesperson explained the decision: “In this case you enter into religious proselytism, which is completely prohibited.”
Montargis’s Muslims still held the event. For them, it was essential to go through with their plan considering the “current climate of Islamophobia” following the Charlie Hebdo attacks. A symbol of the Prophet Muhammad, they used the act of handing out flowers to speak with the passerby to combat prejudices and to explain that Islam is not a violent religion.
Similar events have been held in Vienna and Berlin, where the Islamic Confederation of Millî Görüs has several hundred members. In the Centre-Val de Loire region a similar event was organized in Blois.