Toulouse Imam to Face Trial for Alleged Anti-Semitic Sermon

Imam Mohamed Tataï, originally from Algeria, suspected of being anti-Semitic, has been brought before the criminal court for "provocation to discrimination, hatred or violence (...) on the grounds of origin or belonging to a particular ethnic group, nation, race or religion," said Me Simon Cohen, one of the lawyers for the civil parties, to the AFP. This statement confirms the information from La Dépêche du Midi.

In 2018, following a report received from the local prosecutor’s office, which reported a video dated December 2017 where the imam of the Grand Mosque of Toulouse was preaching in Arabic to the faithful, the Toulouse prosecutor’s office had opened a preliminary investigation, and the imam was indicted in December 2018. According to the text of the video subtitled in English, the imam would have declared that "the Prophet Muhammad has spoken to us of the final and decisive battle: the Last Judgment will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews."

However, the imam has reported an "unfaithful translation" which "is not the true meaning of the hadith" that he had cited in the video. For lawyers William Bourdon, Vincent Brenghart and Jean Iglésis, "Mr. Tataiat, who has always been on good terms with the representatives of the Jewish community, has largely explained the meaning of his sermon and the total exclusion of any incitement to hatred." They will therefore plead with ease, they said.

It should be recalled that since his speech in October on separatism and radical Islam, President Emmanuel Macron has focused his pressure on the governing bodies of Islam in France, in order to fight against foreign influence, radicalization and political Islam, with the vision of ending the presence in France of the 300 "seconded" foreign imams from Turkey, Algeria and Morocco within four years. The date of the hearing remains to be known.