France’s Top Court Approves Expulsion of Controversial Moroccan Imam

"This is a great victory for the Republic," Gérald Darmanin tweeted on Tuesday, announcing the decision of the Council of State to validate the expulsion of Imam Hassan Iquioussen "who holds and propagates in particular anti-Semitic remarks and remarks contrary to equality between women and men." The Moroccan imam was born in France 58 years ago but does not have French nationality.

In a press release, the Council of State outlined its reasons. "The judge of the interim relief of the Council of State considers that his anti-Semitic remarks, made for several years during numerous widely disseminated conferences, as well as his discourse on the inferiority of women and their submission to men constitute acts of explicit and deliberate provocation to discrimination or hatred justifying the expulsion decision."

Considering these facts, "the judge of the interim relief of the Council of State annuls the order of the judge of the interim relief of the administrative court of Paris and rejects the request for suspension of the expulsion filed by Hassan Iquioussen," the institution ruled. And to add: "This decision does not constitute a serious and manifestly unlawful infringement of the private and family life" of the person concerned.

On July 28, the Ministry of the Interior published an expulsion order against the imam due to "remarks inciting hatred and discrimination and carrying a vision of Islam contrary to the values of the Republic such as secularism." Lawyers for Hassan Iquioussen filed a request with the administrative court of Paris at the beginning of August to suspend this order, a request accepted by the judge but which has just been overturned by the decision of the Council of State.