An Islamic cleric who lived in France for 40 years had his residency permit rescinded after being accused of "hate speech" and for remarks against the French flag.
Imam Mahjoub Mahjoubi, 53, was accused of sharing a video in which he said a "tricolor" – without specifying if he meant the French flag – was "satanic" and had "no value with Allah."
Approximately 12 hours after his arrest, the imam was put on a plane that was sent to Tunisia.
"The radical ‘Imam’ Mahjoub Mahjoubi has just been expelled from the national territory, less than 12 hours after his arrest. This is the demonstration that the Immigration law, without which such a rapid expulsion would not have been possible, makes France stronger. We won't let anything go," Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin said on X Thursday.
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Dermanin was responsible for canceling the permit and cited the "unacceptable remarks" about the country's flag as one of the reasons.
The Islamic cleric is married with five children who are citizens of France. He had been in France since the 1980s.
The swift deportation was made possible by a new law that strengthened France’s ability to deport foreigners considered undesirable and made it tougher for foreigners to take advantage of social welfare, among other measures.
Mahjoubi was also accused of hate speech against Jewish people. Hate speech is a crime in France.
According to the deportation order, the imam referred to "the Jewish people as the enemy" and called for "the destruction of Western society," Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Mahjoubi planned to challenge the order. "My lawyer is going to take legal action in France if the court does not grant me justice, I will appeal, and then I will appeal to the European Court [of Human Rights]," the imam told AFP. "I will fight to return to France where I have lived for 40 years."
About the deportation law, Darmanin, who championed the bill, said in December the government sought "greater firmness against foreign offenders."
"Who here can say that we must allow criminals, people on our land, who attack us, attack our professors, and who attack our police forces and who attack the youth on the cafe terraces, without reacting?" he said.
Macron’s centrist alliance and the conservative Republicans party found a deal to allow the text to make its way through the legislative process, which many perceived as a sign of a shift of the government to the right.
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Macron supported the law after his alliance lost its majority in legislative elections last year.
Another law recently enacted in France banned foreign imams from operating in the country, is an attempt by the government to combat religious extremism in a highly secularized nation.
Foreign imams already in the country will either be sent back to their country of origin or take on new, lower-level positions at local mosques.
Fox News' Chris Massaro and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
