France: ten imams expelled since the beginning of the year – dh.be

Published June 29 2015 11:56

PARIS (FRA)

A dozen imams “hate preachers” were expelled from France since the beginning of the year, said Monday Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, after criticism of the lack of firmness government following the attack led Friday by a suspected jihadist. “We have since 2012 (date of the coming to power of socialist Francois Hollande) expelled forty preachers of hatred and imams. In the previous five years, he n ‘ had been expelled only fifteen, “said the minister on the radio Europe 1.” Since the beginning of the year there are 22 cases that are under investigation, and dozens of imams and preachers hatred who were expelled, “he added, responding to criticism from right-wing opposition. Asked about the government’s desire to close the hundred Salafist mosques, some of which feed jihadism, he replied that “if there are associations that run the mosques and all of whose members are pursuing an objective appeal to hatred and incitement to terrorism, these mosques will be dissolved. ” According to him, the files are currently being expertise. Furthermore, the Minister emphasized, “there have been complaints filed criminal every time it was found that a person called to hatred in mosques in France.” Yassin Salhi, alleged jihadist who confessed to killing and beheading his boss Friday near Lyon (center-east), was radicalized in Pontarlier (is) in the early 2000s at the touch of a man suspected of plotting bombings in Indonesia with al-Qaida militants. “There is no doubt (from the suspect, ie) incentives whose reality is personal, but there is a symbolism which it borrows all the most horrible images, the most abject of terrorism,” said Mr. Cazeneuve. There are about 2,500 mosques in France, where estimates of the number of Muslims vary between 4 and 5 million. (Belga)

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