The Administrative Court of Paris halted the deportation of Imam Hassan Iquioussen on Friday after he had been set to leave the country for hate preaching on the order of Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.
The court suspended the deportation of the 57-year-old Moroccan imam, arguing that the deportation order would have a disproportionate interference with the radical imam’s “private and family life” under European law.
“The sole ground based on the existence of acts of explicit and deliberate provocation to discrimination against women does not justify the expulsion measure without seriously and manifestly disproportionately impairing his right to lead a normal private and family life,” the court claimed, Le Figaro reports.
Interior Minister Darmain reacted to the ruling by saying he would be filing an immediate appeal to the Council of State, France’s top administrative court.
Darmanin added in a statement that he was “determined to fight against those who hold and disseminate remarks of an anti-Semitic nature and contrary to equality between men and women.”
In its ruling, the court noted that Imam Iquioussen was born in France, although he did not ever opt to become a French citizen, and that he has a wife, five children, and 15 grandchildren.
While some have opposed the measure to deport the radical imam, a poll released earlier this week showed that 91 per cent of the French public agree in principle with a policy of deporting foreign imams who give sermons and speeches that are contrary to France’s republican values.
Even among the far-left supporters of France Insoumise, a large majority stated they support deporting radical foreign imams, while members of right-wing parties were nearly unanimous in supporting the policy.
The Paris court ruling comes after Iquioussen had taken the matter to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) but had his case rejected.
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