A few weeks ago, the French government issued an expulsion order against a fundamentalist imam named Hassan Iquioussen. The man, who was fiché S (i.e., on a list of radicalized dangerous people), was known for his misogynistic, anti-Semitic, and outrageously sympathetic comments about terrorist acts committed in France. However, the Paris administrative court had rejected his expulsion, prompting a referral to the Council of State at the request of the Minister of the Interior.
On Tuesday, August 30th, France’s highest administrative court ruled in favour of the minister, and the 58-year-old was notified of his expulsion from France to Morocco, his country of origin and of which he is a national. In response, Morocco immediately issued a consular pass, which was necessary for the expulsion.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin warmly welcomed the decision of the Council of State, which deemed Iquioussen’s anti-Semitic and misogynistic remarks sufficient to justify his expulsion. However, the councillors dismissed the charge concerning the imam’s sympathy for terrorist attacks. He is reputedly close to the Muslim Brotherhood.
But this long and painful struggle for the French authorities is not yet over. Indeed, since Tuesday, August 30th, the preacher has disappeared. Following his arrest, Hassan Iquioussen should have been placed in an administrative detention centre instead of being granted in-house confinement. When the police arrived at his home in Lourches, near Valenciennes in the North of France, they did not find him.
In all likelihood, the man on the run has found refuge in Belgium, according to the prefect of Hauts-de-France interviewed on Wednesday 31st at a press conference. “I found that he had evaded the deportation order that had been previously notified to him. He has therefore become a delinquent,” the prefect said. Iquioussen’s family denies his possible escape to Belgium.
The situation borders on the absurd, as the editorialist Elisabeth Lévy deplores in Causeur: while the majority of French people can only welcome the fact that the imam has left French soil, the government is looking for him abroad … in order to be able to expel him.
Another twist has complicated the case: Morocco has finally chosen to suspend the consular pass permitting Iquioussen’s expulsion. Even if he were arrested, the imam could no longer be thrown out of the country, as long as discussions between France and Morocco about him continue.
The French government, and more particularly Gérald Darmanin, had wanted to make Hassan Iquioussen’s expulsion a symbol of its firmness in the fight against radical Islam. So far, no tangible results have been achieved toward this end.
