Belgian authorities confirmed Friday the deportation to Morocco of imam Hassan Iquioussen, after he was arrested in the country after fleeing France, where he is accused of “encouraging violence, hatred and discrimination”.
“Hate preacher Iquioussen was sent back to Morocco today. There is no place for foreign extremists in our country,” Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor said Friday on her Twitter profile.
Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne confirmed in September the arrest of the imam after French authorities authorized his expulsion to Morocco. Iquioussen was the subject of a European arrest warrant.
A Moroccan national, the imam, who has alleged links to the Muslim Brotherhood, is one of the most followed religious figures in France’s Muslim community, with more than 170,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel and almost 43,000 on Facebook.
The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, announced in 2020 a new plan against “Islamic separatism” in the country, for which he pointed out himself as directly responsible, and for which he introduced an extension of the ban on the wearing of the headscarf, the tightening of controls on Muslim associations and modifications in the school system and Islamic training.
