Gérald Darmanin announced on Thursday the upcoming expulsion of preacher 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,” Mr. Darmanin wrote.
Islamic preacher, very active on social networks, in particular with a Youtube channel followed by 169,000 people and a Facebook page with 42,000 subscribers, Hassan Iquioussen, aged 57, living in Lourches, near Valenciennes, in the North, has reacted to this announcement. “Today, I am accused of making discriminatory or even violent remarks, which I strongly contest. I trust in justice and in my advice to cancel this eviction procedure, ”he wrote in a post on his Facebook page.
In 2004, the preacher of Moroccan nationality was accused of anti-Semitic remarks by the CRIF (Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France), which was moved by the former UOIF (Union of Islamic Organizations in France) which has since become ” French Muslims. According to information collected by the North prefecture of which AFP was aware, Hassan Iquioussen had continued to make speeches “hateful of the values of the Republic, including secularism” and “equality between women and men”, and to develop “anti-Semitic theses”.
The Islamic preacher is also accused of inciting “a form of separatism” and of fueling “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 expulsion order “will be taken in the next few hours”, added 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Born in France, he had French nationality until it was withdrawn at his majority.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.