"A filth, doubled as an opportunist: where Muslims have a problem, this guy arrives with a loudspeaker and banners!"
»Virulent… and not surprised: Jean-Christophe Lagarde, president of the UDI and deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis, ex-mayor of Drancy, keeps a very precise memory of Abdelkhakim Sefrioui, one of the fifteen people placed in custody after the assassination of Samuel Paty.
This history-geography professor at the college of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines) was beheaded, Friday, October 16, by a terrorist, a few days after showing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed to his students.
In this department where the Muslim community is important, the name of this militant of radical Islam, on file S and registered in the file of radicalized people, who had called for the suspension of the murdered teacher, recalls dark moments.
"He wanted to take control of the mosque"
Especially in Drancy.
In 2010, at the head of his pro-Hamas collective Cheick Yassine, he organized two months of demonstration against Hassen Chalghoumi, then imam in the town's mosque.
“Chalghoumi publicly declared that he wanted to build good relations with the Jewish community.
It did not please Mr. Sefrioui, who landed from who knows where to, he said,
fire Chalghoumi
.
He wanted to take control of the mosque, ”says Lagarde, the then mayor.
At the time, Sefrioui's home port was in Les Ulis (Essonne), where he was one of the imams of the mosque.
The deputy remembers an "Islamist militant who came to make the punch".
He says: “He came every week, with about thirty supporters, including quite a few strong arms, and waited for the faithful of Drancy at the end of the prayer to tell them all the bad things he thought of their imam, but also, of Israel, of the Jews.
With resources: truck, sound system… ”And the pressure is working: from 900 faithful on average to Friday prayers, attendance declines, until only about fifty people still dare to come and pray.
The prefect tries to deprive him of his nationality, in vain
"Under the guise of coming to defend religion, he stoked hatred of the Jews, of the Republic," recalls an observer at the time.
In his speeches, he also targets Lagarde, very directly.
“As the municipality was renting a building from the association, he thought I had to meddle in their management and
ban
Chalghoumi!
I have always refused to receive it, ”remembers Lagarde.
Of the ten members of the association responsible for the mosque, seven resigned.
At the time, the prefect Christian Lambert tried to deprive the agitator - of Moroccan origin - of his nationality obtained by marriage.
Without success.
Over the weeks, clashes broke out even in the place of worship.
"Young people from the Drancy districts have mobilized to stand guard," recalls an elected official.
So, Sefrioui moves his sermons to the parking lot of the neighboring Carrefour.
A few minutes walk from another mosque: Pantin.
Where we also keep a dark memory of Abdlehakim Sefrioui.
The Pantin mosque closed
"I know this man very unfavorably," confirms Mhammed Henniche, head of the Pantin mosque.
“He laid siege to a mosque for two months!
It was deeply shocking here.
We can disagree, but I did not understand why he used violence, ”remembers the association manager.
Who has tried to mediate: “I sent him an email, offered to start a discussion between the two camps.
He answered me by calling me a collaborator!
"
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The Pantin Mosque, which released the video of a student's father criticizing Samuel Paty's work, calling him a thug, has withdrawn this publication.
Said regret it.
But he assures him: "We have never broadcast Abdelhakim Sefrioui's calls to hatred!"
".
Monday evening, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin also announced that he had asked the prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis to close this mosque.
"Its leader relayed the message which consisted in saying that this professor should be intimidated, by relaying the address of the college," said the tenant of Place Beauvau, offended.
“It may be a gesture of appeasement in relation to the general tension, reacted visibly fatalist M'hammed Henniche.
There is a certain tension so the executive is in a position where it must make strong gestures, it is a gesture to absorb the emotion, to react ”.
The establishment should be closed for six months.
"He's a dangerous man, he manipulates young people."
Another episode in Montreuil.
Rachida Benahmed - the vice-president of Neither putes nor submissives, also elected in Meaux (Seine-et-Marne) - remembers “the scare of her life”.
On May 18, 2010, she participated in a debate on the full veil organized by the feminist association in a school.
Manuel Valls, then socialist deputy for Essonne, is in the room.
The Islamist activist too.
“I had never seen it in my life,” says Rachida Benahmed.
He had invited himself to the debate.
He was very virulent.
He said that the wearing of the full veil for women was legitimate, that everyone did what they wanted.
He was accompanied by fully veiled women.
"
Over the discussions, the evening degenerates.
The police are forced to intervene to put an end to the fist fight.
"His henchmen called us bitches, bitches," she continues.
Then a very violent fight broke out.
Chairs have been stolen.
There were punches, kicks.
Fortunately my son was there to protect me.
"
So learning that the man was taken into custody after the Conflans-Sainte-Honorine attack did not surprise Rachida Benahmed.
“He's a very dangerous man.
He manipulates young people.
"