The coexistence between radical Islam and republican and secular France is a cause of permanent tension in the European country hardest hit by jihadist terrorism in recent years. The latest incident involved the Tunisian imam Mahjoud Mahjoubi, who preaches in Bagnols-sur-Cèze, a town near Avignon. Known for his verbal excesses, Mahjoubi warned the faithful gathered in the mosque that the tricolor flag (the French one is white, blue and red) is “a satanic flag that has no value for Allah.”
As a result of the forceful phrase about the flag and other previous attitudes of the Muslim cleric, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, has initiated the procedures for his expulsion from French territory on the grounds that he incited hatred. The Nîmes Prosecutor's Office has in parallel opened a preliminary investigation into alleged advocacy of terrorism.
Mahjoubi, 52 years old, married to a French woman and father of five children, arrived from Tunisia in 1986. In statements to various media, the imam has completely denied having wanted to offend the country in which he lives and even assures that the phrase is taken out of context and that, in any case, it was a slip, an involuntary error due to not fully mastering Molière's language. “I am neither Voltaire nor Victor Hugo, unfortunately,” he argued. “I did not study either at the ENA (the elitist National School of Administration, breeding ground for presidents and ministers) or at the Sorbonne,” he added, not without a certain irony.
The preacher threatened with expulsion recalled that, for years, he has defended republican secularism, including the right to blaspheme, and condemned the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty by a young extremist of Chechen origin. “I am not a criminal,” he insisted, and denounced a persecution by the secret services against him, digging into all the details of his life to incriminate him. According to him, his controversial words were directed at the Muslim world and in the context of football stadiums, urging young North African fans not to fly national flags, without distinction. The problem is that he used the adjective “satanic” when apparently referring to the French flag and spoke of “all those tricolor flags that give us gangrene, that give us headaches.”
According to the translation from Arabic offered by the newspaper Le Figaro, in his preaching he was very critical of the hegemony of money (“our own children of 12, 13, 15 years old talk to us about pairs of sneakers that cost 300 euros”) and consumption. of alcohol without any limit. He also attacked “fornication” when referring to young Muslims who, without getting married, live with their girlfriends. “Do you accept that the future mother of your children is a fornicator?” he asked himself, in a warning tone. The imam's 40-minute speech included harsh criticism of Israel's policy and the accusation of the media of spreading lies about the Gaza conflict.
Even before the last episode, Mahjoubi was under the spotlight of the authorities and the French justice system for his radicalism and for administrative irregularities in the management of a construction company in which his wife appears as president. A Koranic school for young people was closed after it was detected that the imam was taking the opportunity to send potentially dangerous messages.
As often happens in similar situations, this time too, critical voices have emerged from other imams who distance themselves and highlight the moderation of authentic Islam. The great imam of the Bordeaux mosque, Tareq Oubrou, maintained that “this Islam (the one Mahjoubi preaches) has never existed; “Islam recognizes the diversity of religions, of nations.” The vice president of the French Council of Muslim Worship, Abdallah Zekri, considered that the imam of Bagnols-sur-Cèze crossed “a red line.”
Despite the actions of the Minister of the Interior and the Prosecutor's Office, the effective expulsion of the imam, whose residence permit expires in 2029, will not be easy, especially since his wife is French and he has French children. Under current legislation, Mahjoubi's lawyers have multiple avenues to appeal the measure for years. His case, however, could serve to further fuel the debate on immigration and the danger of Islam ahead of the European elections on June 9, in which the extreme right leads the polls.
