Targeted by a preliminary investigation for advocating terrorism, the imam of Bagnols-sur-Céze defends himself in the columns of Midi Libre.
At midday this Monday, February 19, BFMTV revealed that a preliminary investigation for condoning terrorism targeting Mahjoub Mahjoubi, imam of the At-Tawba mosque of Mont-Cotton in Bagnols-sur-Cèze, had been opened. Originally ? The report of a video in which the imam of Gard speaks of the “tricolor flags which plague us” and affirms that “the only value they have is a satanic value”. According to him, they are worth “nothing with Allah”. Sunday evening, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin himself, announced on having “requested the withdrawal of his residence permit with a view to his expulsion from the territory”, ensuring in passing that “no call to hatred will go unanswered”.
Late Monday, the main person reacted to these accusations. Questioned by the daily Free Midday, Mahjoub Mahjoubi denies having described the French tricolor as “satanic”. “It’s an awkwardness of language. A problem of wording,” he says. The one who invites everyone “to read [s]speeches which are all broadcast on social networks”, and to consult the videos which go with them, declares that in the remarks which he is accused of today, he “spoke[t] of a completely different situation which had nothing to do with France or the tricolor flag.
Affirming that he “will[t] crazy and unconscious to come and insult the French flag and cause such a buzz”, Mahjoub Mahjoubi wanted to re-contextualize his words. “At the time I was giving this speech, we were at the end of the African Cup of Nations football”, he recalls in the columns of Free Midday. He claims to have then addressed the Algerian and Moroccan communities, “well represented at the Can, with people brandishing tricolor flags”. “It divides us. So I said that these flags are corrupting us when we need to make peace. I should have talked about flags of different colors, this controversy would not have taken place”, explains the one again. who regrets “a slip of the tongue” and understands that such remarks could have been shocking.