Gérald Darmanin requested the withdrawal of the residence permit of Mahjoub Mahjoubi, the imam of Gard accused of preaching anti-France. But according to the prefect of the department, the request would be justified by a “certain number of offenses”.
Accused of inciting hatred after the broadcast of a video repeating passages from one of these sermons, the imam of Gard Mahjoub Mahjoubi is in the viewfinder of the Minister of the Interior. Gérald Darmanin announced that he had requested the withdrawal of the residence permit of the Tunisian imam who has lived in France for more than 30 years with his wife and children. While the procedure initiated by the minister is based in part on the video in which imam Mahjoub Mahjoubi evokes “tricolor flags which gangrene us […] which have no value with Allah” except “a satanic value” – without ever specifying that it is the French flag – the accused defends himself and claims to have made a “slip of the tongue” He explains that he accidentally inverted “tricolor” with “multicolor” to designate the African flags.
Two versions therefore clash on this affair, but according to the prefect of Gard, Jérôme Bonet, the request for withdrawal of the imam’s residence permit would be based on other facts and reports concerning Mahjoub Mahjoubi. “It is not only this video extract which justified the reaction of the Minister of the Interior, it is a follow-up which dates back several months” declared the prefect on Franceinfo this Tuesday, February 20.
Follow-up and previous reports
Jérôme Bonet added that he had noted a “drift” in “several recent sermons” which “contain in their content a certain number of offenses likely to be prosecuted” and reported by the prefect to the Public Prosecutor last Friday. In response, the Nîmes public prosecutor’s office opened a preliminary investigation for advocating terrorism.
This is not the first time that imam Mahjoub Mahjoubi has been reported by the prefecture. Two others preceded the report concerning the video extract broadcast last weekend reports BFMTV. The first dates back to November 3, 2023 and concerns the managerial function that the imam occupies in a construction company despite a conviction dating from 2015 which prohibits him from managing a company. The second dates from November 8, 2023 and relates to an administrative control carried out in the Gard mosque in which he preaches which gave rise to the closure of the collective reception of minors for security and reception problems for this public.
A difficult expulsion to pronounce?
The various reports and the follow-up mentioned by the prefect of Gard provide material to be processed after the request for withdrawal of the residence permit made by Minister Gérald Darmanin. But the effective withdrawal of this title can prove complicated since for this, the prefect must prove the existence of a disturbance of public order or acts of apology for terrorism. The investigation should shed light on this point. For his part, if the investigation concludes that such disturbances exist, imam Mahjoub Majoubi will be able to appeal to an administrative court as indicated by prefect Jérôme Bonet: “Fortunately, we are in a state of law . (…) Obviously, there are avenues of appeal.” For the moment, the iman’s residence permit runs until 2029.
Mahjoub Mahjoubi and his lawyer deny any incitement to hatred and maintain that it is an unfortunate slip of the tongue by the imam. “I have always defended the republic,” the Tunisian even assured Monday evening on France Blue : “For years, I have been praised because I defend the Republic, I defend blasphemy, I defended Samuel Paty (..) and there, I make a slip on the word tricolor, and I am shot, they demand my expulsion.”