French Interior Minister Under Fire Over Failed Attempt to Expel Radical Imam
Paris (CNSNews.com) – Following a botched attempt to deport a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated imam under a new “anti-separatist” law designed to counter radical Islamism, the French interior ministry is reportedly taking steps to expel others.
Mediapart, an independent investigative online newspaper, reported that Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin is preparing “a long list of imams to be expelled from France.”
Among those on the list, it said, was a former head of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France, a major umbrella organization affiliated to the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe
The interior ministry has not commented on the reports.
Darmanin has been heavily criticized over his handling of Hassan Iquioussen, an imam born in France of Moroccan parents. The minister told lawmakers in early August that he had signed an expulsion order for the imam, who he said had for years been responsible for “hate speeches,” with sermons including “calls for hatred and violence against the Jewish community in particular.”
The 58-year-old holds Moroccan citizenship, and Darmanin said that country’s government had issued a permit that would allow him to enter.
A Paris administrative court then suspended the expulsion order, saying it would amount to a “disproportionate attack” on Iquioussen’s “private and family life.” He has five children and 15 grandchildren, all French citizens.
Later in the month, however, the Council of State endorsed the decision to expel Iquioussen. It cited “anti-Semitic speech” as well as “speech on the inferiority of the woman,” calling them “acts of explicit and deliberate provocation to discrimination or hatred.”
(The Council of State, the country’s supreme court for administrative justice, also acts as legal advisor to the executive branch.)
Since that verdict was delivered on August 30, Iquioussen has been under an official order to leave France. But when police went to his house the next day he had disappeared. Amid rumors that he had fled to Belgium, he is now the subject of a European arrest warrant.
The government has come under fire over its handling of the affair.
The leftist Rebellious France movement said the Council of State decision had been political rather than judicial, charging that the executive had pressured the judiciary.
On the far right, National Rally leader Marine Le Pen said it was regrettable that “the expulsion of an Islamist is so complicated, so rare, and so late.”
The secretary-general of the center-right Republicans, Aurélien Pradié, in a radio interview questioned Darmanin’s competence, calling him “helpless” and saying that he “speaks a lot but doesn’t act a lot.”
Darmanin is widely seen as a prospective candidate to succeed President Emmanuel Macron after his second and final term.
Iquioussen is seen as being close to the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt in 1928. It is considered a terrorist group by several countries, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia and, while not forbidden in France, is viewed with some suspicion. Security services keep a close watch on influential members and affiliated mosques.
According to Darmanin, Iquioussen has been listed on the government’s “S File” for 18 months. The file is a register of individuals who are considered potentially dangerous and subject to surveillance by police and intelligence agencies.
At the age of 18, Iquioussen was stripped of French nationality at the request of his father. As a result, he has since then been required to apply periodically for a permit, to enable him to continue to live and work in France. Until now, the permit has been renewed without any problems.
Surely it is high time for the civilized world to acknowledge sharia for what it is—the antithesis of human rights?
Islamist at the White House
Imam Azhar Subedar cavorts with terror-tied radicals… and Joe Biden.
Joe Kaufman, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is Chairman of the Joe Kaufman Security Initiative and the 2014, 2016 and 2018 Republican Nominee for U.S. House of Representatives (Florida-CD23).
Azhar Subedar is an Islamist with a busy schedule. One August day he is at a terror-related mosque in Boca Raton, Florida. The next, he is wakeboarding with someone whom the FBI alleged was a fundraiser for the Taliban. Two days later, he was at a global youth event, in Dallas, Texas, hosted by the US State Department. This past May, Subedar attended a Ramadan celebration at the White House, the invitation of which was from President Joe Biden, himself. Why would a radical Muslim be invited to an official gathering by the State Department or be allowed to step foot into the White House? This is no doubt a threat to national security.
Subedar was born and raised in Canada, which may have contributed to his strong animus towards France; he refers to French people as “conniving.” Subedar currently resides in Texas, where he presides as the imam of the Plano-based Islamic Association of Collin County (IACC), but spends much time in Florida, as well. He too has a fervent dislike towards Floridians. In September 2017, he wrote on his social media, “Stupid + American = Floridians.”
The Boca mosque that Subedar attended (and where he said he had a “fantastic evening”) was the Islamic Center of Boca Raton (ICBR), an institution founded by individuals linked to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) that received its seed money from an al-Qaeda-related charity. Co-founder Bassem Alhalabi, who before coming to ICBR was an assistant to PIJ leader Sami al-Arian, is currently ICBR Secretary and Registered Agent for ICBR’s corporation. The mosque’s website previously featured an essay labeling Jews “people of treachery and betrayal” and discussing a Judgement Day when Muslims will “fight the Jews and kill them.”
The Taliban-linked individual who Subedar went wakeboarding with (and this was not the first time) was Izhar Khan, an imam who, in May 2011, was arrested and detained for his alleged participation in a scheme to ship $50,000 to the Taliban for the purpose of murdering US troops overseas. Though the court determined Khan “posed a danger” to others, ultimately he was released from jail by a sympathetic judge. Khan is the spiritual leader of Masjid Jamaat-ul-Mumineen (MJAM), a mosque that promotes texts on its website labeling Jews and Christians “enemies,” mandating death for gays, and sanctioning domestic violence against women.
Subedar’s involvement with ICBR and Khan is no aberration. He proudly surrounds himself with such radicals. One is Muslim activist Abdur Rahman Al-Ghani, who has used Facebook to attack Jews, gays and America. Subedar refers to him as “my dear brother.” Another is Shafayat Mohamed, founder/imam of the Darul Uloom Institute (DUI), what has been a haven for al-Qaeda operatives. Mohamed has been thrown off a number of county boards for his extreme rhetoric against gays. Subedar calls him his “mentor.” Subedar has also fundraised and participated in events for Islamic Relief (IR), a group that has been banned by several nations.
Subedar has taken part in functions with: Monzer Taleb, a self-professed member of Hamas, who refers to Hamas militants as “SUPERHEROES” and who wrote, in June 2019, that Jews in Israel “should be relocated to Germany”; Mazen Mokhtar, a former administrator for the now-defunct al-Qaeda recruitment site, qoqaz.net, and who stated, in April 1996, that suicide bombings are “an effective method of attacking the enemy and continuing jihad”; and Sofian Zakkout, the President of the American Muslim Association of North America (AMANA), who was thrown off the boards of anti-crime groups for his support of Hamas and Holocaust denial.
None of this, it seems, has mattered to the Biden Administration. Recently, Subedar was invited to the White House for a May 2nd celebration of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim festival marking the end of Ramadan. The invitation states, “The President and Dr. Biden request the pleasure of your company for a celebration of Eid al-Fitr to be held at the White House…”
Photos from the Eid celebration depict Subedar posing with a number of fellow Islamist leaders. They include: Emgage National Chairman and attorney for high-profile convicted terrorists, Khurrum Wahid, who reportedly spent time on a terrorist watch list, himself; former President and current board member of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), former Senior National Director of Islamic Relief USA, and current CEO of Muslim Aid USA Azhar Azeez; and former Secretary General of ISNA Sayyid M. Syeed. ISNA’s early relationship to the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), led the group to be named an “unindicted co-conspirator” to Hamas funding.
None of these individuals should have been allowed to enter the White House, let alone be participants at an official White House function at the behest of the President and First Lady. Yet, for Subedar, he has a significant past with the Bidens, as he spoke, in his capacity as the imam of the Plano Mosque, at the January 2021 Inaugural Prayer Service for the Fifty-Ninth Presidential Inaugural at Washington National Cathedral. A photo on his Facebook page, has him and Biden next to one another with big smiles. Also, according to his bio, he was a member of White House Faith Based and Community Initiatives under President George W. Bush.
Because of the groups and individuals they associate with, by having Subedar and these others participate at their functions, the White House and State Department are legitimizing Islamic extremism and severely compromising America’s security. Instead of inviting these individuals to galas and celebrations, the US government should look to shut them and their groups down.
Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.
Death for Apostates, Jail for Blasphemers
Recent developments in Libya and Egypt.
This article first appeared on Coptic Solidarity.
A Libyan court has sentenced a young man to death for “apostasy from Islam.” According to the Libyan al-Jumhiriyah channel, the verdict was issued against a young man named Diya’ al-Din Bil’awa, who graduated from the College of Information Technology in 2018.
Diya’ was also described as a hafiz—one who had memorized the entire Koran—suggesting that he was once a member of the Islamic clerical class, thereby making his apostasy all the more scandalous.
It is unclear how the accused’s apostasy has manifested itself—whether he had converted to Christianity, as is often the case with Muslim apostates, or whether he had become an outspoken atheist/agnostic.
According to al-Jumhiriyah, sometime in 2019, the accused was “offered” to retract his apostasy and rejoin the fold of Islam, but he refused to do so.
What is clear is that the apostasy law being cited was established in Libya’s penal code after the “Arab Spring” overthrow of Muamar Gaddafi, when “We [the U.S.] came, we saw, he died,” to quote a then cackling Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
This development is another reminder that, as with every other Middle Eastern nation that experienced what the Western media long portrayed as an “Arab Spring”—a supposed overthrow of tyranny and authoritarianism, replaced by liberalism and progressivism—so too has Libya, home to where 21 Coptic Christians had their heads severed off for their faith in 2015, taken a turn for the worse.
In neighboring Egypt, it was also just reported the other day that a Cairo appeals court confirmed a five years’ imprisonment sentence (with hard labor) for another young man, the Copt, Marco Guirguis Shehata, who is charged with “deriding Islam.” The accusation is based on “evidence” found on his smartphone, which Marco had said was stolen at that time. His father, a modest iron smith, in Kena, north of Luxor, and his entire family were devastated by the unexpectedly harsh sentence.
These two cases—a man sentenced to death for “apostasy” in Libya, and another sentenced to five years’ imprisonment with hard labor for “deriding Islam” in Egypt—come within just one week of the tragic case of “Baby Shenouda”: Egyptian authorities snatched a four-year old child from his adoptive, Christian parents, and sent him to an orphanage, where he was forcibly “returned” to Islam. The reason for such an inhumane reaction is that Egypt is governed by sharia, which not only bans adoption, but teaches that every human is a sort of prototypical Muslim on birth; they only “lose” their Islam when taught false things or religions—hence the urgent need to remove this child from otherwise loving but Christian parents.
Surely it is high time for the civilized world to acknowledge sharia for what it is—the antithesis of human rights?
Raymond Ibrahim
Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
78 Migrants on Terror Watchlist Apprehended in 2022, Triple Last 4 Years Combined
Border Patrol agents along the southwest border with Mexico apprehended 78 migrants listed on the Terrorist Screening Dataset (Watchlist) during the first 11 months of Fiscal Year 2022. This is three times the total of the last four years’ apprehensions of potential terrorists combined.
A report released late Monday afternoon from U.S. Customs and Border Protection details the arrest of 78 migrants who illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico Border who appear on the terrorist watchlist known as the Terrorist Screening Dataset (TSDS). With one month to go this year, the total is three times more than the combined total of the past four fiscal years.
In contrast, not a single person appearing on the watchlist was arrested crossing the U.S.-Canadian border, the report states.
The TSDS ” is the U.S. government’s database that contains sensitive information on terrorist identities. The TSDS originated as the consolidated terrorist watchlist to house information on known or suspected terrorists (KSTs) but has evolved over the last decade to include additional individuals who represent a potential threat to the United States, including known affiliates of watchlisted individuals,” CBP officials stated. “TSDS watchlisted individuals encountered by the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) after entering the country without inspection may be detained and removed, to the extent possible under CBP policy, or turned over to another government agency for subsequent detention or law enforcement action, as appropriate.”
The report from CBP stated that in addition to the 78 watchlisted migrants apprehended in 11 months this year, another 15 were apprehended in all of FY21, three in FY20, none in FY19, six in FY18, and two in FY17.
The apprehension of 78 watchlisted migrants out of the nearly two million total migrant apprehensions is a small number. However, the numbers could be significantly higher if you take the more than 580,000 migrants classified by Border Patrol as “got-aways.”
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Face
Randy Clark contributed to this report.
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