French Minister’s Move to Expel Imam Sparks Controversy and Accusations of State Racism

In a press release, the UJFP denounces the "state racism" that "continues its project of discrimination against part of the population, since the vote of the infamous ’separatism’ law". "A large part of the press, far from defending freedoms, brings out an old statement from 2003 with anti-Semitic connotations, on which the imam Iquioussen has returned and apologized. Twenty years later, the political maneuver is crude. If the statements of this imam are reprehensible, let him be judged for it!" the association also denounces. It declares itself "in solidarity with the ostracized Muslims" and a "liberticide drift that says a lot about the far-right drift of the country by Macron and his allies".

"While Hassan Iquioussen’s behavior has not changed between the periods before or after these previous renewals, the executive wants to expel him by invoking reasons that, for the most part, date back about twenty years, i.e. a period prior to several renewals of his residence permit," the LDH indicates for its part. The association points out that there is no conviction, no particular offense, no immediate danger or urgency. According to it, it is just a politico-media instrumentalization of the law, the whim of a minister who, once again, gives guarantees to the far right.

And to point out: "Hassan Iquioussen is, of course, a Muslim preacher who develops a particularly conservative vision of religion, and a conception of society and the family that many of us find retrograde and at odds with our values."