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Toulouse: release of an imam tried for "incitement to racial hatred"

2021-09-14T15:43:29.780Z


"The offense is not characterized": the Toulouse Criminal Court on Tuesday released an imam who was on trial for "incitement to ...


"

The offense is not characterized

": the criminal court of Toulouse on Tuesday released an imam who was tried for "

incitement to racial hatred

" after a preach in Arabic broadcast on social networks in 2017.

Read alsoAn imam of Toulouse will be tried for "incitement to racial hatred"

The public prosecutor had requested at the end of June six months of suspended imprisonment, considering that the speech of Mohamed Tataïat, the imam of the Great Mosque of Toulouse, contained “

anti-Semitic stereotypes

”.

"

The court does not find in the remarks made by Mohammed Tataïat any desire to provoke hatred or discrimination

", indicated the president of the court.

"

The words could have been made recklessly but not in a desire to discriminate,

" he insisted.

The lawyer welcomes the court's decision

One of the imam's lawyers, Jean Iglesis, welcomed the fact that the court had retained "

the personality of Mr. Tataïat, an imam of peace and moderate, practicing in Toulouse for 30 years, and who has always maintained close ties and friendship with all the communities

”.

Read also What the imam of Toulouse really said in his controversial sermon

"

We salute the independence of mind of the tribunal which resisted an unprecedented attempt to criminalize the perfectly lawful commentary on a hadith (collection of acts and words of the Prophet Muhammad, Editor's note) by an imam respected for years

", reacted his two other lawyers, William Bourdon and Vincent Brenghart.

"

The public debate that the authorities wish to establish on the accountability of imams can not lead to their interference in religious fact as it is a public expression which, if it can be debated, was strictly in no way criminal

", have they added.

The imam was reported in 2018

The Toulouse public prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation in 2018 after receiving a report targeting a video in which Imam Tataïat is seen preaching in front of the faithful in the Arabic language.

According to the text translated during the investigation, the imam quotes a hadith proclaiming: "

the day of judgment will come only when the Muslims fight the Jews, the Jew will hide behind the tree and the stone, and the tree and the stone will say

"

oh Muslim, oh servant of God, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him

" ".

Nearly a dozen associations had filed a civil action.

During the trial, Mr. Michaël Bendavid for the Licra had maintained that Tataïat had "

made a choice when he built his sermon

", deploring in particular the mention of the "

martyr

" Ahmed Yassine.

"

It is the choice to quote a person at the foundation of a terrorist movement, Hamas, without any critical distance

," he said.

This imam was seconded to France by the Algerian Ministry of Religious Affairs which paid him, first to the Great Mosque of Paris from 1985 to 1986, then to Toulouse in 1987.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-09-14

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