Several academics, members of associations, particularly Jews in France, protested against the decision of the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, to expel a French imam, Hassan Iquioussen. In a forum, the signatories call for an end to racism and specifically institutional Islamophobe in France.
The column entitled “Refusing the expulsion of Imam Hassan Iquioussen means defending the basic principles of the rule of law”, signed by several academics and personalities from the anti-racist movement, recalls that the imam targeted by an expulsion procedure was above all born in France, and that in this sense, if he has committed crimes, he must answer for them in France and not in Morocco.
“Hassan Iquioussen was born in France. He has children and grandchildren in this country. His life is here where, in addition, he is linked to political figures in the North. If it is proven that he has committed crimes of anti-Semitism or homophobia, it is in France that he must account for them, ”wrote the authors.
For them, “the question of the doctrinal and religious positioning of the imam threatened by Gérald Darmanin matters little, in truth” because the most important thing is to defend the values of France.
They recall one by one, all the racist measures and aimed in particular at Muslims taken in France. “The threat of expulsion martially pronounced by the Minister of the Interior against Hassan Iquioussen is the implementation of the aggravation of the racist and specifically Islamophobic legislative arsenal voted and promulgated under Macron”, they indicate.
They cite the “Separatism” law, the “Asylum-immigration” law and believe that “asylum is only a word but also the numerous closures of mosques and/or the dissolution of the CCIF among other community associations” .
Among the signatories of the open letter to President Emmanuel Macron, and published by the French Jewish Union for Peace (UJFP), are the Islamologist and political scientist François Burgat, of the CNRS-IREMAM, Laurent Bonnefoy, researcher at the CNRS, the political scientist and decolonial feminist, Françoise Vergès, academic Jocelyne Cesari, Rabbi Gabriel Hagaï, and Jewish anti-racist activist, Dominique Natanson.
“Darmanin’s martial tone to the applause of the Rassemblement national deputies is a further step in the threat that institutional racism poses to Muslims in France,” he said, adding that “we must defend Hassan Iquioussen and firmly refuse his expulsion”
The signatories explain that his expulsion “evidences the ever more serious obstacles to the rule of law and the designation, by the French Republic, of internal enemies”.
“The question of the doctrinal and religious positioning of the imam threatened by Gérald Darmanin matters little, in truth. Hassan Iquioussen may be conservative but each branch of monotheism has its conservatives and even its reactionaries. The same goes for Christianity and Judaism. Let’s be honest: what is targeted here is the freedom of opinion and expression of the group identified as Muslim,” they said.
On Thursday, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in favor of the French Interior Minister, rejecting the request to suspend the expulsion order to Morocco by Hassan Iquioussen.
The ECHR considered that “due to the seriousness of the threat to public order, the minister (Gérald Darmanin, editor’s note) considered that there had not been a disproportionate attack on his right to family life”, if he should be deported to Morocco.
Gérald Darmanin again justified the expulsion of this imam on CNews, judging that he had made “openly anti-Semitic, openly xenophobic, openly homophobic, openly anti-women remarks”.
He “has nothing to do on national soil”, insisted the Minister of the Interior. For its part, the imam’s defense believes that if he had comments of this nature, they date back more than twenty years and that this has never been a reason not to grant him a new title. stay in France.
For its part, the administrative court of Paris will make its decision Friday at the latest on the case of the imam by suspending or not the expulsion order.
“I ask you to be wary of sentences cut and taken out of context,” said his lawyer, Me Lucie Simon.
For its part, the League of Human Rights (LDH) also supported the preacher, and the request of his lawyer during the hearing.
“These old comments have never given rise to a refusal of a residence permit or a criminal conviction”, noted Me Marion Ogier for the association, defending “the right to respect for private and family life”.
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