France puts Pro-Palestine Imam under house arrest and prepares his expulsion

Pessac - Abdourahmane Ridouane, president of a mosque in the southwest of France, has been placed under house arrest and has been subjected to an expulsion procedure by the French State. These measures follow on from announcements of an intensified persecution by the Ministry of the Interior in May 2024 against “political Islam” and the Muslim Brotherhood. 

The State has in the past attempted to close down the mosque Redouane is the president of in 2022, without success. To justify the house arrest and the expulsion, the State has targeted Ridouane’s pro-Palestine activism and criticism of French neo-colonial policies in his native country, Niger. A final decision on his expulsion will be made before the 22nd of June.

Rayan Freschi, a Legal Jurist and France-based researcher for CAGE International said: 

“The French State is intensifying its anti-Muslim persecution by using executive powers to banish dissenting Muslims. Protecting the Olympics against an alleged “Muslim threat” serves as a convenient pretext to justify these draconian measures. This case is not isolated. It is the latest example of ‘exile’ used against Muslims voicing their criticism of France’s Islamophobia and complicity in the genocide in Palestine.”