Imam Faces Death Threats After Condemning Samuel Paty’s Assassination

"For the simple fact of having apologized in front of the Conflans college and condemned the criminal who took my religion hostage, I received 12,000 hateful comments on my Facebook page. Death threats, insults, criticism... (...) Since the assassination of Samuel Paty, I have seen an incredible tsunami of hatred against me on social media. Imagine, I am suffering all this because I simply asked Muslims to ’wake up’ and end the victim mentality that has ruined the youth".

For Chleghoumi, Islamism has "gained even more ground" five years after the November 13 attack at the Bataclan. Worse, "terror has never changed sides". Today, his positions against radical Islam make him "a monster, public enemy number one". "Some of my friends with networks in the Muslim world have told me that I was on everyone’s lips, he says. In Turkey, in Pakistan. Everywhere, I am seen as the traitor to be eliminated. I had already experienced tensions in 2010 and 2015, but it was nothing compared to what is happening to me since the death of Samuel Paty".

Because of this situation, Mr. Chalghoumi confides that he "does not reside more than three or four days in the same place" and that he "wears a bulletproof vest". "As soon as I am spotted, I have to leave. I have no choice. I even had to put my house up for sale... At the Drancy mosque, I only officiate one week out of two during the Friday prayer, so as not to endanger the police who accompany me," he adds.

"A few years ago, men broke my wife’s nose at a market in Bobigny. As for my daughter, she has gained 30 kilos since her last persecution. It is a reality, many are ready to act. I have defended the freedom of France at the price of my individual freedom. Today, I can no longer even walk in the street, it is a heavy price I pay," he laments.