IQUIOUSSEN. Moroccan imam Hassan Iquioussen must be expelled from French territory for remarks deemed “separatist” and “Islamist”. The man, on the run, is actively sought by the police.
Imam Hassan Iquioussen has been wanted by the police since the decision confirming his expulsion from French territory was validated by the Council of State on Tuesday, August 30. The preacher has not yet been arrested, he is currently considered a fugitive: a source close to the file has also confirmed to Agence France Presse that Hassan Iquioussen had been registered in the file of wanted persons (RPF).
According to information from France Info and TF1 Infos, the police searched the home of Imam Hassan Iquioussen in Lourches near Valenciennes, in the Nord department. It has been suggested by sources close to the case, mentioned by France Info and TF1, that the fugitive is currently in Belgium. Hassan Iquioussen’s son was interviewed by RMC: he claims to be “in shock”. “Looks like we are looking for a terrorist, in a few weeks he has become the man to kill. […] His country is France, we didn’t think they would come to this. There are human consequences behind, today it’s a whole family who suffers from that “And to insist on the fact that he has” no news “of his father, indicating not to know where He is currently in. He did say that the imam had “stepped back” and was “going to rest a bit” a few weeks ago.
This decision of the Council of State is therefore a green light to the Ministry of the Interior in order to be able to implement the expulsion of Imam Hassan Iquioussen. He should be deported to Morocco, after a legal battle lasting several weeks. It all started when Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior, announced on July 28, 2022, on Twitter: “This preacher has been making hate speech against the values of France for years, contrary to our principles of secularism and equality between women and men. He will be expelled from French territory.” A ministerial order of expulsion is then launched against Hassan Iquioussen.
When the Ministry of the Interior ordered the imam’s expulsion, Gérald Darmanin explained that the imam had been speaking “to a large audience since the beginning of the 2000s. […]a proselytizing speech interspersed with remarks inciting to hatred and discrimination and carrying a vision of Islam contrary to the values of the Republic”. In addition, Hassan Iquioussen is accused of holding “a speech with an anti-Semitic content particularly virulent”, to advocate the submission of women to men. In addition, the imam, according to the decree, would encourage separatism and display a “contempt for certain republican values such as secularism and democratic functioning of French society”.
The imam has made many controversial remarks in recent years, relayed on online video platforms. As Le Figaro reminds us, who has undertaken to list his most controversial statements, Hassan Iquioussen is convinced that Islam in France is in the grip of a “fifth column”, attacked by “traitors of the Interior”, whose objective is to ” to convert, to come out of Islam and to spread information that is false”. And to insist on their place in a statement dating back several years: “They are collaborators. And with us, the collaborators, we put 12 bullets in their heads. The firing squad”. The man also clearly defended several times that Islam was a “religion of peace”, and that “to hate someone because he is Jewish” was “a sin in Islam”. As Le Figaro again points out, the preacher nevertheless described the Jews as “avaricious and usurers”, also designating them as the “top of treason and felony”.
The words of the preacher are also quoted by the Council of State, as it reported in its decision: “The instruction established that Mr. Iquioussen had developed for several years, on the occasion of numerous conferences and speeches relayed by social networks to a wide audience, an anti-Semitic speech for which he presented his “apologies” in 2004 and condemned anti-Semitism in 2015 only in reaction to the emotion that his words had aroused and without refuting In addition, comments of an anti-Semitic nature were reiterated after his ‘apology’ in 2004 and the videos relaying his anti-Semitic comments remained online until recently without Mr. Iquioussen having sought to stop it from being broadcast.”
A week after Gérald Darmanin’s initial tweet, on Friday August 5, 2022, the Paris administrative court suspended the deportation to Morocco of Hassan Iquioussen. The court recognized “retrograde remarks” on the place of women in society, but assured that their expulsion is not justified.
Following this decision, Gérald Darmanin appealed to the Council of State. Thursday, August 4, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) had rejected a request for suspension of this expulsion measure. The Minister of the Interior, who revealed on August 8 that Hassan Iquioussen had been on file S for eighteen months, intended to follow through on his approach. According to statements reported by Franceinfo, he was “prepared to go as far as legislative changes if the law is not in tune with the nature of the threat posed by delinquent foreigners”.
Thus, the Council of State was seized by the Minister of the Interior on the legitimacy of the suspension of the request for expulsion of the imam. The court considered that it was not legitimate and therefore ordered the expulsion of Imam Iquioussen. The Council of State thus announced, Tuesday August 30, 2022, to validate the expulsion of Imam Hassan Iquioussen. If his decision had been canceled by the administrative court of Paris, the highest administrative court of France finally agreed with the minister, giving the green light to the competent authorities to get the preacher out of France. For Gérald Darmanin, this is a “great victory for the Republic”, as he commented on the announcement on social networks, recalling having justified his decision because of “anti-Semitic remarks and contrary to equality between women and men” held by Imam Iquioussen.
This is what also prompted the Council of State to go in the direction of the tenant of Place Beauvau. The statement from the court indicates that “the interim judge of the Council of State considers that his anti-Semitic remarks, made for several years at numerous widely publicized conferences, as well as his speech on the inferiority of women and their submission to man constitute acts of explicit and deliberate provocation to discrimination or hatred justifying the decision of expulsion.” Moreover, “this decision does not seriously and manifestly illegally affect the private and family life of Mr. Iquioussen”, added the Council of State. For now, neither the imam nor his council has reacted to the decision.
Thursday August 25, 2022, the investigative newspaper Mediapart revealed that Gérald Darmanin dined with Hassan Iquioussen in 2014. According to the media, the current Minister of the Interior aspired at the time to conquer the town hall of Tourcoing. He then wishes to get closer to those who constitute the left-wing electorate in place at the head of the city and the country (François Hollande was then President of the Republic). It is therefore on this occasion that he organizes a dinner with the representatives of the Muslim community of the North. “We had a very nice evening. It was very positive, we agreed on 99.9% of the topics of conversation,” said Hassan Iquioussen, to Mediapart. For his part, Gérald Darmanin did not wish to react.