Prayer Hall: City Hall

prayer hall: Such protests aren't without risk of a backlash, especially in the politically heated atmosphere of France's upcoming presidential election, according to Hamilton Spectator. Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has previously decried street prayers, part of her anti-immigrant, anti-Islam outlook. The show of strength by throngs of worshippers in Clichy highlighted a long-standing issue for France's Muslim community, estimated at five million people a shortage of mosques. Clichy Muslims had been using a prayer hall rented from city hall. City hall refused to renew the three-year lease when it expired last June and, following a court battle, closed down the prayer hall last week with help from French police. But the town's mayor now wants to turn that space into a multimedia library for the town's 60,000 residents. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.