The Council of State, the highest French administrative court, will decide “at the beginning of next week” on the request of the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, who intends to have an order of the administrative court of Paris suspending the request for expulsion canceled. of the preacher Hassan Iquioussen.
For nearly three hours this Friday, the chamber of summary proceedings of the Council of State heard the arguments of the representative of the Ministry of the Interior and the lawyer of the preacher threatened with expulsion to Morocco.
Charisma and hateful provocation
Hassan Iquioussen is “a charismatic preacher who has acquired legitimacy within a very large audience and who for years has been spreading insidious ideas which are no less provocations to hatred, discrimination, violence “said the director of public freedoms and legal affairs at the Ministry of the Interior.
In the audience hall, archifull, many relatives of the imam including several representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood had taken place. For Lucie Simon, the imam’s lawyer, the anti-Semitic or violently misogynistic remarks alleged against her client “were sometimes made more than twenty years ago”. “These provocations must be current, this is what results from case law”. “He has never been prosecuted or convicted for these remarks,” insisted the lawyer.
Antisemitic and misogynistic discourse
On July 28, the Ministry of the Interior issued an expulsion order targeting the imam because of “a proselytizing speech peppered with remarks inciting hatred and discrimination and carrying a contrary vision of Islam. to the values of the Republic.
The ministry reproached the imam in particular for “a particularly virulent anti-Semitic speech” and his sermons advocating the “submission” of women “for the benefit of men”. The expulsion order also evoked the encouragement “to separatism” and the “contempt for certain republican values such as secularism and the democratic functioning of French society”.
Seized by Hassan Iquioussen’s lawyers, the Paris administrative court suspended this request for expulsion in early August, arguing that the expulsion of the imam, born in France 58 years ago but of Moroccan nationality, would “undermine disproportionate” to his “private and family life”.
If the Council of State confirms the decision of the administrative court, Hassan Iquioussen cannot be expelled to Morocco. If the high administrative court reverses, on the contrary, the decision of the administrative court, Hassan Iquioussen will be expelled even if the file will be pleaded on the merits before the Council of State only within a few months.
Gérald Darmanin, “disappointed” by the decision of the administrative court
In an interview published by the Sunday newspaperGérald Darmanin, “disappointed” by the decision of the administrative court, has already warned that if the law “does not allow” to expel Hassan Iquioussen, it will have to be changed “to further defend the French”.
“Yes, Hassan Iquioussen is a conservative. He had retrograde remarks on the place of women, ”conceded Lucie Simon. “But this does not constitute a serious threat to public order,” she stressed.
For his part, Simon considered that the expulsion order essentially responds to “a political agenda of Gérald Darmanin”. “It is said that this man (Hassan Iquioussen) threatens public order through his videos posted on the internet. Is expelling him really the solution to safeguard public order? she wondered.