The prefect of Gard Jérôme Bonnet spoke this Tuesday, February 20 on FranceInfo about his report sent last Friday to the Nîmes public prosecutor's office concerning sermons deemed "anti-France" broadcast by imam Mahjoub Mahjoubi.
This is the subject of three reports.
The latest concerns his comments made in a video where he films himself in front of the camera and evokes the
“tricolor”
flag as being a
“satanic flag”
which has
“no value with Allah”
.
And the imam would not have only stuck to these words: according to the representative of the State in Gard, other sermons published this month of February “
contain in their content a certain number of offenses likely to be prosecuted.”
Comments on the place of women and the Jewish people
“There are several dozen minutes of preaching which were analyzed by specialized services. They contain many other things than this pseudo-slip
- the imam in fact mentioned a slip of the tongue to defend himself, Editor's note
"
, declared this morning at the microphone of FranceInfo Jérôme Bonnet, specifying that these problematic remarks would relate to the place of women in society but also on the Jewish people, designated as “
an enemy”
.
“Remarks that fundamentally call into question our values
,” the prefect was indignant.
These three reports targeting Mahjoub Mahjoubi would be the consequence
of “follow-up of several months around radicalized people”
, continues Jérôme Bonnet, claiming to have, from November 2023, requested the closure of the Koranic school of the Ettaouba mosque, in Bagnols- sur-Cèze.
“This closure was requested for reasons relating to the reception arrangements for these minors who receive teaching in this school which does not meet the regulations: these courses are not supervised by qualified adults. In addition, these people should normally submit educational projects, but this is not the case
,” explained the prefect.
A “political maneuver”?
The imam defended himself against any radicalization, assuring that it was a
“slip of the tongue”.
“A slip of the tongue which lasts several tens of minutes
,” quipped the prefect at the microphone of FranceInfo.
The respondent also added that he never wanted to defame
“the tricolor flag”:
he was simply looking for a synonym to say
“a flag of three colors”
.
“Sorry, I’m not Victor Hugo
,” he laconically apologized.
While the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin demanded the withdrawal of the imam's residence permit, the Nîmes public prosecutor's office opened an investigation for "apology of terrorism".
“The Minister of the Interior is scrupulously following these subjects and very specifically, for several weeks, the case of Bagnols sur Cèze.
The aspect which concerns the right to stay is an integrated approach, the fruit of scrupulous work
,” supported the prefect, specifying that “
recourse remedies
” were possible.
“
Moreover, this is what the new
immigration law allows
: should we keep people on our territory who make comments that challenge our values to this extent?
», asked Jérôme Bonnet.
For his part, the lawyer of this Gard imam Me Samir Hamroun denounced this Tuesday morning on BFMTV a
“political maneuver”
.
“The honor and dignity of a man are thrown away,”
he added, believing that
“we want to use Mahjoub Mahjoubi to continue a fight
. ”