Civil Society Group Tied to Muslim Brotherhood Says “Mobilization Must Continue” After Expulsion Halted for French Imam Over Anti-Semitic Speeches

The Col­lec­tif Con­tre l’Islamophobie en Europe (CCIE), a Bel­gian Mus­lim advo­ca­cy NGO tied to the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood (GMB), has issued a state­ment say­ing “mobi­liza­tion” had to con­tin­ue after a French admin­is­tra­tive court halt­ed expul­sion pro­ceed­ings against French imam Has­san Iquioussen. Iquioussen is being accused, among oth­ers, of hold­ing anti-Semit­ic and dis­crim­i­na­to­ry speech­es. Accord­ing to a Face­book post by CCIE:

August 5, 2022 The Admin­is­tra­tive Court of Paris sus­pend­ed this after­noon the expul­sion of Imam Has­san Iquioussen. Gérald Dar­manin, in a state­ment from the Min­istry of the Inte­ri­or, declared to appeal this deci­sion to the Coun­cil of State. The mobi­liza­tion must con­tin­ue. [Trans­lat­ed from French orig­i­nal using Google.]

Read the post here.

Iquioussen is a pro­fes­sor at the Paris chap­ter of the Insti­tut Européen des Sci­ences Humaines, an edu­ca­tion­al facil­i­ty in rur­al France asso­ci­at­ed with the Coun­cil of Euro­pean Mus­lims (CEM), one of the lead­ing orga­ni­za­tions rep­re­sent­ing the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood (GMB) in Europe. He has been close to French CEM mem­ber Musul­mans de France and act­ed as the top MDF recruiter.

Accord­ing to French media, in May 2022, the French state start­ed depor­ta­tion pro­ceed­ings against Iquioussen for hold­ing dis­crim­i­na­to­ry, anti-Semit­ic, and vio­lent speech­es. Iquioussen was accused of incit­ing “a form of sep­a­ratism” and feed­ing “con­spir­a­cy the­ses around Islam­o­pho­bia.” A French gov­ern­men­tal anti-rad­i­cal­iza­tion com­mit­tee also revealed that the imam par­tic­i­pat­ed in a con­fer­ence with French far-right Holo­caust denier Alain Soral. French Inte­ri­or Min­is­ter Ger­ald Dar­manin, who had orig­i­nal­ly issued the expul­sion order against the imam, tweet­ed:

This preach­er has for years held a hate speech against the val­ues of France, con­trary to our prin­ci­ples of sec­u­lar­ism and equal­i­ty between women and men. He will be expelled from French territory.

In its 5 August sus­pen­sion rul­ing, the Paris admin­is­tra­tive court said that Iquioussen’s expul­sion would cause a “dis­pro­por­tion­ate attack” on his pri­vate life and fam­i­ly. It also high­light­ed that the imam was born in France, where he has resided along with his wife and five French chil­dren, and fif­teen French grand­chil­dren. Vow­ing to appeal the court’s deci­sion, Dar­manin said that he was deter­mined to fight those who “make and dis­sem­i­nate com­ments of an anti-Semit­ic nature and con­trary to equal­i­ty between men and women.”

Sev­er­al groups tied to the GMB have come out in defense of Iquiouis­sen, with the CCIE say­ing the expul­sion order sole­ly sought to humil­i­ate the imam and that it made French Mus­lims ques­tion their reli­gious free­dom in France. Musul­mans de France expressed con­fu­sion over the imam’s expul­sion, whom it char­ac­ter­ized as spread­ing “authen­tic Islam imprint­ed with love and tolerance.”

The Col­lec­tif Con­tre l’Islamophobie en Europe is the suc­ces­sor to the Col­lec­tif Con­tre l’Islamophobie en France (CCIF), an Islamist influ­ence oper­a­tion with mul­ti­ple rela­tion­ships to orga­ni­za­tions part of the GMB in Europe that France had banned in Novem­ber 2020 as part of a broad crack­down on groups accused of rad­i­cal­ism. The CCIE was found­ed in the same month. In Novem­ber 2020, the Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) report­ed that the French inte­ri­or min­is­ter had dis­solved the Col­lec­tif Con­tre l’Islamophobie en France. In Feb­ru­ary 2021, the GIOR report­ed that the CCIF had regrouped in neigh­bor­ing Bel­gium under a new name. In August 2020, the GIOR report­ed that the Coun­cil on Amer­i­can-Islam­ic Rela­tions (CAIR), an impor­tant part of the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, had announced it offered office space and logis­ti­cal resources to CCIF.