Mosque threatened with closure in Marseille: Imam accused of inciting hatred denounces “a political decision”

The Bleuets mosque in Marseille is threatened with closure. Its main imam is accused of legitimizing violence and polygamy in his speeches.

The Bouches-du-Rhone police prefecture announced in a press release on Tuesday, August 20, that it was launching an administrative closure procedure against the Bleuets mosque in Marseille following “remarks legitimizing violence” that have allegedly been made there for years. The mosque has ten days to defend itself and try to avoid closure. Such remarks are notably attributed to the French imam Ismaïl. He is accused by the Interior Ministry of holding “a speech inciting discrimination and hatred against women, in particular through sermons legitimizing marital rape or polygamy”. In 2017, he is said to have declared that “women do not have the right to refuse men” and that “a man has no right to refuse himself to his “wife”. 

The 43-year-old imam, who has reportedly been working in the mosque for 14 years, has been under surveillance by intelligence services since 2017 and several of his lectures have already been banned. Widely followed on social media, the cleric is said to preach a radical practice of Islam. “The question is not that in a text written a thousand years ago, there are texts that are necessarily dated. The problem is to apply on social networks in 2020 that marital rape is legitimate. That is the problem, not ancient texts,” police prefect Pierre-Eacutedouard Colliex explained to AFP

The imam defends himself

The accused reacted to BFMTV, denying the facts he is accused of. He claims that it is a “pack of lies”. He justifies himself by explaining that at the time he was explaining the “rights and duties between husband and wife” and “evoking the principle of “equity”. Recalling that it is “prohibited in France”, he contests the legitimization of polygamy. “We need to stop the hypocrisy. We live in a country where men and women of any faith have multiple romantic relationships,” he said, noting that “polyamory is legitimate.” A fairly similar speech regarding the call for violence: “In no case did we call for hatred, for violence, we have always condemned what has been done in the name of Islam, like the "events of 2015 and before and after", he said. 

He then pleads for the mosque not to be closed and even believes that it is a "completely" political gesture, highlighting the "relentlessness of the Minister of the Interior" wanting to “attract a certain far-right electorate”. “It is a political decision dictated by a precise timetable, where the resigning minister will begin his presidential campaign by trying to woo the far-right electorate, he is in his most miserable position ever”, he added. with France 3 Provence-Alpes.

On BFMTV, his lawyer assured that an appeal will be launched to thwart the prefecture's decision, the mosque also being accused of giving voice to preachers legitimizing the Hamas attack on Israel. The closure of the mosque, which welcomes 350 worshipers every Friday, could last six months, according to the latter.