Excerpt:
A French mayor has ignored a court order to dismantle two Ramadan tents that had been set up on a parking lot in the deprived Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, telling judges that doing so would disrupt public order.
Judges ruled the prayer halls had been set up illegally, but the official insists that removing them would trigger religious tensions and upset the local Muslim community.
The tents, which serve as makeshift prayer halls during Islam’s holy month, have been a fixture in the Basse council estate in Sevran for 15 years.
They have been set up in a parking lot located on the estate which is owned by the social housing provider Logirep for the past four years.