France’s Montreuil administrative court upheld a six-month closure of the Chanteloup Mosque in Aulnay-sous-Bois, near Paris, rejecting a request to suspend the order. In a ruling issued Friday, the court said the mosque would remain closed until January under an order issued in July. The case has renewed concerns about state control over Islamic belief and worship.

Lawyer Rafiq Chekkat, representing the mosque, said part of the authorities’ case concerned imams citing seven Quranic verses and works from Islamic tradition, including writings by the 13th-century Syrian Islamic thinker Imam al-Nawawi. Authorities also objected to religious statements referring to hell for “unbelievers” and punishment in the grave. The court said the decision by Seine-Saint-Denis prefect Julien Charles did not constitute a serious and clearly unlawful violation of freedom of worship or expression.

Chekkat called the decision incompatible with religious freedom and said the mosque’s side would appeal to the Council of State, France’s highest administrative court. The US-based Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the ruling and urged the US State Department to denounce the mosque closure.