The decree of the government of the French Community which dismisses Hicham Abdel Gawad of his functions as professor of Islamic religion without notice and for serious misconduct canceled by the Council of State! Hicham Abdel Gawad had brought an action against this decree issued in July 2017. Five years later, here he is rehabilitated.
At the time, this professor, a graduate of ULB and UCL, who taught in schools in Anderlecht and Forest, had explained to several media that his dismissal was linked to the content of his courses, in particular the fact that he tackled questions linked to homosexuality or to Greek philosophers. An opening badly received, according to him, by the inspection of teachers of Islamic religion in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation.
For the emergence of an Islam worthy of the 21st century
Following this dismissal, Hicham Abdel Gawadauthor of the book “Questions young people ask themselves about Islam” wrote on social networks: “My commitment to young people as well as the fight for the emergence of an Islam worthy of the 21st century, an Islam whose belief depends on knowledge and not the other way around, this commitment I will maintain until the end and whatever it arrived.“
He added: “Although the teaching of the Islamic religion in schools is in a lamentable state (…), the critical, open, benevolent and lively spirit of the hundreds of young Muslims whom I had the honor to meet, also positive discrimination than elsewhere, this spirit is the spirit of tomorrow which, I have no doubt, will largely catch up with the spirits of yesterday who have not finished pulling on the careerist rope of an institution which only represents itself.“An attack addressed to the Executive of Muslims in Belgium, while chaired by Salah Echallaoui (forced to resign at the end of 2020 by the Minister of Justice, resignation since questioned by justice).
In any case, concerning the teacher Hicham Abdel Gawad, the judgment of the Council of State teaches us more about the reasons for the dismissal of the latter and the arguments which enabled him to have it annulled. It was when he taught at the Athénée royal Paul
Delvaux d’Ottignies (from 2015) that trouble begins. “I taught in Anderlecht and Forest without any problem, and it was in Ottignies that it went badly. The headteacher made various reproaches to me and it was crescendo. In the end, it was harassment and I burned out”he said to the DH in July 2017.
A conference in France during sick leave
Trainee in the function of professor of Islamic religion, he is invited to explain himself to the prefect following various shortcomings. Among these, as we learn in previous judgments of the Council of State: having led, in June 2017, a workshop and a conference in France, in Marseille, “while absent from work for medical reasons“but also of”have not submitted any grades or reviews since November 2016“. Sufficiently serious breaches that may justify a sanction.