Dimitri Vernet and William Molinié, edited by Laura Laplaud
modified to
1:25 p.m., December 08, 2022
Gérald Darmanin’s fight against Salafism continues. The Minister of the Interior has banned the visit to France of a Yemeni sheikh, the Salafist preacher Al-Mohammedi. He was to come and preach from Friday at the Chilly-Mazarin mosque, in Essonne, this weekend but it will not be. The Minister of the Interior reproaches him for his remarks: “These polytheistic Christians who eat the illicit, who drink alcohol with their naked wives… To be able to respect the precepts of the Koran, you must not share anything with them. I advise my brothers to leave these places to emigrate to Muslim countries,” he said.
For Gérald Darmanin, there is no question of letting these hadiths pass, collections of acts and words of Muhammad spoken by the preacher. Al-Mohammedi is therefore the subject of an IAT. What is it exactly?
Known for his hateful sermons towards the West
An IAT is an administrative exclusion order. Pronounced by the Minister of the Interior, it prevents a foreigner from entering French soil when his presence constitutes a serious danger. A ban that can only be lifted at least one year later, at the request of the person affected by this measure.
In this specific case, Gérald Darmanin is targeting the Yemeni preacher Al-Mohammedi. Man known for his hateful sermons towards the West, encouraging separatism and community withdrawal. This weekend, he was due to travel to France for conferences at the great mosque of Chilly-Mazarin, in Essonne, as part of a European tour that took him to Rotterdam, Cologne and Molenbeek on Wednesday evening. Molenbeek, a Brussels municipality sadly known for having hosted several perpetrators of the Paris attacks.
France closes its doors to the preacher
By pronouncing this IAT on the Yemeni preacher Al-Mohammedi, France closes its doors to him. The internal security services had him in the sights. They were monitoring his social media accounts and his YouTube channel where he made speeches deemed contrary to Republican values. In a note from the Ministry of the Interior that Europe 1 was able to consult, the Salafist preacher describes Jews and Christians as corrupters.
Regarding women, he considers that a man must close his eyes if he meets a woman. According to this note, the sheikh, known to hold the hard line of Salafism, believes that the use of corporal punishment is legitimate, like that of cutting off the hands of thieves.