Hundreds Rally in Support of Imam Facing Expulsion from France

"Because the hunt for Hassan Iquioussen is a test case, we are organizing a rally today to show our support for Hassan Iquioussen and his family in this ordeal, denounce the ongoing dismantling of Muslim structures and initiate a new dynamic of mobilization," said the "Perspectives Musulmanes" collective. On Friday, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin mentioned on the BFMTV channel "other cases in the coming months and years".

According to the collective, this expulsion "is the sole political will of the executive to make Islamophobia (under the guise of the fight against separatism) a major project of the five-year term". Several participants denounced "repression", "state Islamophobia" and "the relentlessness of the public authorities against the most visible Muslim figures".

Gérald Darmanin had ordered the expulsion from French territory of Hassan Iquioussen, accused of holding "for years a hateful discourse against the values of France" towards Morocco. A measure that was suspended by the Paris administrative court on August 5 on the grounds that it would constitute a "disproportionate infringement" of his "private and family life". The case will be brought before the Council of State. The latter examined the appeal and endorsed the expulsion of the Moroccan imam.

Since then, Hassan Iquioussen, who is registered in the FPR, the file of wanted persons, is untraceable. He is said to have taken refuge in Belgium. "Clearly, he is not in France," the Interior Minister confided. On Friday, an investigating judge in Valenciennes (North) issued an arrest warrant against the imam of Lourches for "evading the execution of a removal decision", which is contested by his lawyer Lucie Simon. She intends to continue, in the coming months, the fight to have the infringement of her client’s freedoms recognized and thus have his expulsion canceled.