France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has requested the withdrawal of a residence permit for a Tunisian Imam to deport him from the country, alleging that the Imam “issued calls for hatred.”
In a statement published on the platform “X” on Sunday, Darmanin stated he had asked the police chief of the “Gard” region in southern Jerome Bonet to notify “the Public Prosecutor of the Imam’s positions,” adding, “No call for hatred will go unanswered.”
In a video circulated on social media, the Imam of the city “Bagnols-sur-Cèze,” Mahjoub Mahjoubi, described the “tricolor flag” as a “demonic flag of no value to God,” without specifying that he was referring to the French flag.
In another video also shared on social media, the Imam spoke about the appearance of “the Mahdi” who would unite all Muslims, saying, “He will declare himself, and then all rulers in all governments will fall, and we will not have all these tricolor flags that we suffer from and that give us headaches, and have no value to God, their only value is demonic.”
He continued, “Look at all these flags we have in matches… they are demonic flags of no value, imposed simply so that we hate each other, do not love one another, and to instill hatred in our hearts.”
The French channel “BFMTV,” which revealed the information, noted that Mahjoubi is a member of the “Muslim Association of Gard Rhône.”