Tunisian imam expelled from France
vows to appeal decision
A Tunisian imam expelled from France for alleged hate speech said on Friday he would take legal action in a bid to overturn the decision.
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Mahjoub Mahjoubi, from the town of Bagnols-sur-Ceze in the south of France, denounced his removal as "arbitrary".
The cleric's decision came a day he was expelled from France for "radicalism" and "unacceptable remarks", French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said in a statement posted on X on Thursday.
"The radical Imam Mahjoub Mahjoubi has just been expelled from the national territory, less than 12 hours after his arrest. We will not let people get away with anything," said Darmanin.
The 52-year-old was arrested and then deported to Tunisia on Thursday, where he arrived shortly before midnight aboard a flight from Paris.
Mahjoubi had been in France since the 1980s and is married with five children.
While all of his children are French citizens, Mahjoubi had a residency permit in France. His permit has been cancelled by Darmanin.
'Retrograde, intolerant and violent'
The official order for Mahjoubi's expulsion, seen by AFP, said that in sermons in February he had given a "retrograde, intolerant and violent" image of Islam that would encourage behaviour against French values, discrimination against women, "tensions with the Jewish community" and "jihadist radicalisation".
The imam also referred to "the Jewish people as the enemy", according to the order, which said Mahjoubi called for "the destruction of Western society".
The imam was also accused of sharing a video in which he described the "tricolour" – without specifying if he meant the French flag – as "satanic" and of "no value with Allah".
Mahjoubi defending himself, saying it had been a "slip of the tongue" and that he was referring to rivalries between football supporters of different Maghrebi nations during the recent African Cup of Nations.
"I will fight to return to France where I have lived for 40 years," the imam told AFP in his in-laws' house in Soliman, 30 kilometres (19 miles) east of Tunis.
Mahjoubi, who runs a construction company, said his family, including his youngest child who is in hospital for cancer treatment, depended entirely on him.
"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, he added.
"I did not insult the Jewish community, nor the flag of France," he said.
'A buzz' around France's new immigration law
In another post on X on Thursday, Darmanin said the expulsion was a "demonstration" that a recently approved immigration law "makes France stronger".
The law toughening migration conditions was seen as part of the government's response to the rise of the far-right in French opinion polls.
"Firmness is the rule," said Darmanin, who slammed what he called a "radical imam who made unacceptable comments".
Mahjoubi denounced the expulsion as being based on "an arbitrary decision", and said Darmanin was using his case to "create a buzz around the immigration law".
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)
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British court declines to restore citizenship
of woman who joined ISIS as teen
Feb. 23 (UPI) -- Shamima Begum, a British woman who traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State as a teenager nine years ago, lost an appeal to regain her citizenship after a unanimous decision by an appeals court.
The court's three judges ruled unanimously against granting the appeal, dismissing all five of the grounds for appeal presented by attorneys for Begum, now 24.
"It could be argued that the decision in Miss Begum's case was too harsh," Judge Sue Carr said. "It could also be argued that Miss Begum is the author of her own misfortune. But it is not for this court to agree or disagree with either point of view."
Appeals judges in London said they were left to judge whether citizenship revocation was legal and not to relitigate the case.
Carr said then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid's decision to revoke her citizenship after she left for Syria at the age of 15 was lawful as she held Bangladeshi citizenship when he made the ruling in 2019, rejecting her lawyer's argument that the decision left her stateless.
The judges also ruled that Javid was within his power to dismiss concerns that she was a victim of child trafficking and that the removal of her citizenship didn't violate equality laws on the grounds that British Muslims disproportionately face the threat of losing citizenship, citing exceptions for national security threats.
Attorney James Eadie, representing the Home Office, said that Begum's national security risk cannot be excused because she was a teenager when she left Britain for Syria.
"The fact that someone is radicalized and may have been manipulated is not inconsistent with the assessment that they pose a national security threat," he said.
Begum's supporters claim she was a trafficking victim of the Islamic State at 15 while opponents say she left to join the militant group in Syria of her own free will and is now a security risk.
Daniel Furner, Begum's attorney said he plans to keep fighting for Begum's return to Britain, hinting that he may appeal the decision to the country's High Court.
"[I'm] not going to stop fighting until she does get justice and until she is safely back home," Furner said.
"Safely" is an odd word to use here!
Begum was permitted to return to Britain in 2020 to fight for her citizenship after she had been held in a detention camp run by the Syrian Democratic forces after marrying a militant fighter and giving birth to three children, all of whom have since died.
We suffer the consequences of the decisions we make. When we make really bad decisions, we suffer really bad consequences.
Search this blog for Shamima or Begum for more tragic stories on this woman.
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