The imam defends himself by pointing out a simple “slip of the tongue”, but the authorities are far from convinced.
Invited this Tuesday morning on Franceinfo, the prefect of Gard Jérôme Bonet justified his report to the Nîmes public prosecutor's office last Friday of the words of imam Mahjoub Mahjoubi.
The Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin simultaneously requested on Monday the withdrawal of the residence permit of the Tunisian cleric from Gard with a view to his expulsion, due to “calls to hatred”.
Beyond a video extract which has been singled out, it is the subject of "monitoring which dates back several months", insisted the prefect, who underlined a "drift established by several recent sermons", which appear to him as “offences”.
In a first video relayed on social networks, the imam of Bagnols-sur-Cèze notably describes the “tricolor flag” as a “satanic flag” which has “no value with Allah”.
If he has since explained himself in several media, notably to France Bleu to whom he claims to have made a “slip of the tongue”, Jérôme Bonet underlines “it is a slip of the tongue which lasts several tens of minutes”, which does not concern “ not just the flag”, “but also the place of women” and a comparison between “the Jewish people” and “enemies”.
He also emphasizes that this extract is not the only one questioned by the authorities.
>> More information to come on leparisien.fr.