The Minister of the Interior announced Thursday the upcoming expulsion of a preacher from the North, Hassan Iquioussen, reputed to be close to the Muslim Brotherhood, for calls for hatred and violence against the Jewish community in particular.
In a tweet, the Minister of the Interior argued that this expulsion was justified by the fact that “This preacher has for years held a hate speech against the values of France contrary to our principles of secularism and equality between women and men”. “He will be expelled from French territory”, writes Gérald Darmanin.
“Today, I am accused of making discriminatory or even violent remarks, which I strongly contest. I trust in the justice system and in my advice in order to cancel this expulsion procedure”reacted Hassan Iquioussen in a post on his Facebook page.
Islamic preacher, very active on social networks, in particular with a youtube channel followed by 172,000 people and a Facebook page with 42,000 subscribers, Hassan Iquioussen, 57, was accused in 2004 of anti-Semitic remarks by the Crif (Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France) who was moved by the former UOIF (Union of Islamic Organizations of France) which has since become “Muslims of France”.
Living in Lourches, near Valenciennes, Hassan Iquioussen had continued to hold, according to the elements collected by the northern prefecture of which AFP was aware, speeches “hateful of the values of the Republic, including secularism” and “equality between women and men”and to develop “anti-Semitic theses”. He is also accused of inciting “to a form of separatism” and feed “conspiracy theses around Islamophobia”.
On June 22, the departmental commission for the expulsion of foreigners gave a favorable opinion on his expulsion, the Interior Ministry told AFP on Thursday, confirming information from Le Point.
The deportation order “will be taken in the next few hours”, we added from the same source. The expulsion of this preacher, father of 5 adult children, was not possible before the law fighting against separatism promulgated in August 2021. Born in France, he had French nationality until it was withdrawn from him in its majority. Of Moroccan nationality since then, he had then benefited from residence permits. It was thanks to a request for renewal this winter of his ten-year residence permit, which was about to expire, that the French authorities decided to use the law of August 2021.