Since Tuesday, the Council of State had taken the decision to expel Hassan Iquioussen. The French government accuses this imam of having speeches “contrary to the values of the Republic”. Problem: the preacher cannot be found when he had to return to Morocco.
For AFP, the prefect of Hauts-de-France, Georges-François Leclerc, had announced that he would have fled to Belgium. One thing is certain, he was not at home when the police came to take him away. But who is he really? Response elements.
Why does he have to leave the country?
Born in France in 1958, he chose to reject his French nationality and take exclusively that of his Moroccan parents when he obtained his majority. Decision which therefore forced him to keep residence permits for ten years in order to stay in France. Last winter, the administration refused to accept a new title and he received an eviction notice on May 3.
In reality, the man had been making “anti-Semitic remarks for several years”, according to the Council of State. During sermons or broadcast conferences, he also carried “discourses on the inferiority of women and their submission to men”. The French court saw this as acts of explicit and deliberate provocation to discrimination or hatred.
In 2003, he also gave a conference entitled: “Palestine, a story of injustice”. He affirmed in particular that “the Zionists and Hitler had joined forces to promote the settlement of Jews on Palestinian land.” In addition, he also questioned “the reality of the terrorist attacks and its rejection of the laws of the Republic in favor of Islamic law.”
Active on YouTube
The Moroccan, who lived in Lourches, near Valenciennes in the North, had infiltrated town halls and developed religious networks. According to some media like Le Point, he succeeded thanks to the complacency of local authorities. One of his sons, Sofiane, worked as the head of an integration structure (now dissolved). He was suspected of several embezzlement committed between 2013 and 2017
Hassan Iquioussen therefore had a great influence on his community and in certain political spheres.
To achieve this, the father of five uses YouTube a lot. His channel is followed by 169,000 people and a Facebook page with 42,000 subscribers. He is therefore not content with his sermons and conferences to spread his message. In these videos, he would have explained in particular that he was “unfortunate that today, women consider that serving their husbands and their children is a punishment, whereas it is a blessing”.
He also put Bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, on a pedestal by calling him a “great fighter against the Americans” and “a great defender of Islam”. Because of his declarations, he was given an S file (which means wanted person) 19 months ago. Since the 90s, he has also been portrayed as close to the Salafist brotherhood of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Now wanted because of his flight, he faces three years in prison for evading his arrest.