The Bleuets mosque in Marseille is threatened with closure. Its main imam is accused of legitimizing violence and polygamy in his speeches.
The Bouches-du-Rhône police prefecture reported on Tuesday, August 20, in a press release launch an administrative closure procedure against the Bleuets mosque in Marseille following “remarks legitimizing violence” that have allegedly been made there for years. The mosque has ten days to defend itself and try to avoid closure. Such remarks are notably attributed to the French imam Ismaïl. He is accused by the Ministry of the Interior of holding “a speech inciting discrimination and hatred against women, in particular through sermons legitimizing marital rape or polygamy”. In 2017, he is said to have declared that “women do not have the right to refuse men” and that “men do not have the right to refuse their wives”.
The 43-year-old imam, who has reportedly been working in the mosque for 14 years, has been under surveillance by intelligence services since 2017 and several of his conferences have already been banned. Widely followed on social media, the cleric is said to preach a radical practice of Islam. “The question is not that in a text written a thousand years ago, there are necessarily dated texts. The problem is to postulate on social media in 2020 that marital rape is legitimate. That is the problem, not ancient texts,” police prefect Pierre-Édouard Colliex explained to AFP.
The Imam defends himself
The accused responded to BFMTVdenying the facts he is accused of. He claims that it is a “collection of lies”. He justifies himself by explaining that at the time he was explaining the “rights and duties between husband and wife” and evoking the principle of “fairness”. Recalling that it is “prohibited in France”, he contests legitimizing polygamy. “We should stop the hypocrisy. We live in a country where men and women of any faith have several romantic relationships”, he declared, noting that “polyamory is legitimate”. A fairly similar speech concerning the call for violence: “In no case did we call for hatred, for violence, we have always condemned what was done in the name of Islam, such as the events of 2015 and before and after”, he affirmed.
He then pleaded for the mosque not to be closed and even considered that it was a “completely” political gesture, highlighting the “relentlessness of the Minister of the Interior” wanting to “attract a certain far-right electorate”. “It is a political decision dictated by a precise timetable, where the resigning minister will begin his presidential campaign by trying to seduce the far-right electorate, he is in his most miserable position ever”, he added to France 3 Provence-Alpes.
On BFMTVhis lawyer assured that an appeal will be launched to thwart the decision of the prefecture, the mosque being also accused of giving voice to preachers legitimizing the attack of Hamas against Israel. The closure of the mosque, which welcomes 350 worshipers every Friday, could last six months, according to the latter.