Ln August 5, the Paris administrative court ruling in summary proceedings suspended the execution of the expulsion decision targeting Imam Hassan Iquioussen, born in France but of Moroccan nationality. The Ministry of the Interior accused him of a “proselytizing speech interspersed with remarks inciting hatred and discrimination and carrying a vision of Islam contrary to the values of the French Republic”, in an expulsion order issued on July 27.
This order was challenged by Hassan Iquioussen’s lawyer, Ms.e Julie Simon. The judges agreed with him, considering that the elements against the ministry were a little too old. “The contentious remarks were made between 2003 and 2005 and, lastly, in 2014”, underlines the decision of the administrative court. The Minister accuses him of “a strong hostility towards the constituent values of Western societies, encouraging his audience to separatism”, but these accusations “are not supported by any document”. Conclusion, the “explicit and deliberate provocation to hatred and violence” is not supported by recent elements.
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The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, seized the Council of State. According to our information, the decision will be made before the end of August. It is difficult to know the elements that the ministry will provide to the highest administrative court, but it could be that a video entitled “Muslim, to life, to death…” is part of it. Available on YouTube, it is dated December 23, 2019. Contacted by PointMe Julie Simon refused to confirm the authenticity and the date. In his sermon, Hassan Iquioussen says himself that he speaks in 2019.
And what is the price of paradise? This is jihadHassan Iquioussen, end of 2019
Delivered in an unidentified mosque, the sermon lasts nearly an hour and a half. The first forty minutes are fairly innocuous, then the preacher heats up. “You have to be a rigorist”, he asserts to his audience. “If we don’t fight every day, it’s obvious that we’ll be eaten alive by Sheitan” – that is to say the devil, in Arabic. “God’s merchandise is expensive, paradise is expensive. And what is the price of paradise? It is Jihad. »
The imam, who knows his classics, specifies that he understands by “Jihad” the interior fight of the believer and the spiritual fight against the enemies of the faith. It is not a question of taking up arms. The problem is that twenty-five minutes later, he comes there explicitly. The starting point of her anger is the law banning the veil in certain parts of the public sphere. Hassan Iquioussen gets carried away against “terrorist secularists”. “These guys want to take the essentials away from us, Allah tells us not to laugh with them, bang your fist on the table. Come here, you bunch of miscreants! »
He then embarked on a perilous intellectual construction, establishing a parallel between contemporary France and the Andalusia of the Reconquered, to encourage his audience to refuse any compromise. Fallacy of the slope: If Muslims yield on the veil, they are doomed to endless persecution. “This is exactly what happened in Andalusia! hammers the imam. “Slowly, from generation to generation, after 150 years, the total disappearance of Islam. The tragedy occurred because of “traitors, cowards and sellouts” who renounced violence… Because, according to the imam, the Spanish royalty had accepted all the demands of the Muslims of Andalusia, except one. “Do you know which one? Arms. »
Above all, no compromise
There is no longer any question of spiritual Jihad. The speaker pauses. The audience is invisible, but you could hear a pin drop. “We know the rest,” continues Hassan Iquioussen. The Muslims having laid down their arms, came “Torquemada, the laws, one after the other”. In the same way, in France, after what he calls “psychological pressure”, if the Muslims gave in to it, the time would come for “simply physical pressure. Haven’t you seen in China? It’s 2019, right? Have you seen the concentration camps? (where Uyghur Muslims are locked up, editor’s note). Above all, no compromise. The video has been viewed over 85,000 times on YouTube, which is not Hassan Iquioussen’s highest score.
The speaker is so verbose that it would be possible to make another selection of his speeches, which would make him appear as a model of moderation and an exemplary republican. But doesn’t one statement cancel another? And how far can we go? A certain “right to exaggeration” is recognized by the French courts and by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), in the name of freedom of expression, for the benefit of elected officials in the countryside, trade unionists in struggle or cartoonists. Perhaps Hassan Iquioussen used striking images with the sole aim of reviving the attention of the audience, as an experienced orator. His expulsion, then, would undoubtedly cause a “disproportionate attack” on his “private and family life”, as considered by the administrative court. If the Council of State confirmed this decision, Gérald Darmanin warned on August 8: he is ready to “change the law” so that Hassan Iquioussen leaves the territory.
“We are not in a world of Care Bears”, declares Hassan Iquioussen in his sermon. On this point at least, the two men are of the same opinion.