French police arrest Turkish "extremist" leader

French police have arrested the Turkish leader of a Paris mosque accused of heading an extremist Islamic group which advocates "terrorism", the Interior Ministry said yesterday.

Police arrested Midhat Guler, 45, late on Saturday after they received an expulsion order from the Interior Ministry.

"Midhat Guler is the leader in France of an extremist Turkish Islamic movement which advocates resorting to violence and terrorism," the ministry said in a statement.

Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin urged the official French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) on Saturday to cooperate with state authorities to combat fundamentalism in France and train moderate prayer leaders.

There was no immediate comment from the CFCM on Guler's detention, but the council's leader complained last week about rising intolerance towards Muslims in France.

Last month, France deported an Algerian prayer leader for saying Islam allowed husbands to beat adulterous wives, and expelled another imam for preaching radical Islam and defending the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people.

Guler's son, Abdurrahman, said his father, who had been in France for 28 years, did not understand why he had been held.

"I've seen him. He doesn't understand," Abdurrahman told Reuters. "Of course I'm worried. It's unacceptable."

Guler took care of the administration of the mosque in the 11th arrondisement of Paris but did not preach, his son said.

"He's just the person in charge of the mosque and nothing more," Abdurrahman said. "My father has presided over this mosque since 1984, there have never been problems, not an anti-Semitic word or anything, never."

Guler, who is being held near Charles de Gaulle airport, made a request for political asylum in France after being detained. Villepin will seek to extend Guler's detention while the request is examined, the Interior Ministry said.

France's Muslim community is Europe's largest at some five million people. French security officials say they see radical Islam as one of the major threats to the French state.

President Jacques Chirac said yesterday that people who came from abroad to live in France must adopt French values.

"Those who have come from elsewhere and settled (in France) must be welcomed and helped," he told a conference on local government. "But nobody can take advantage of an allegiance to a community to impose their law on the law."

On Thursday, the CFCM's leader Dalil Boubakeur denounced rising intolerance towards Muslims in France and urged political leaders and the media to help restore the community's image.

At the time of the Algerian imam's expulsion Boubakeur criticised what he called a "media witchhunt" against "ignorant imams".

Tension mounted over Islamic practices in France during a recent heated debate on banning Muslim headscarves and other religious symbols in state schools. Chirac's government introduced the ban to defend France's secular tradition.

Attacks against mosques and anti-Muslim graffiti and comments increased after the headscarf debate, Boubakeur said on Thursday.

He is due to meet Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin today.