• Mmadi Ahmada, former imam of the mosque of Saint-Chamond was returned to the Comoros with his family, indicated the prefecture of the Loire.

  • The imam had been under deportation since October for having made remarks last summer deemed to discriminate against women.

  • His residence permit was not renewed.

The imam of the main mosque of Saint-Chamond (Loire), who had made “comments incompatible with the principles and laws of the Republic (…) was returned to the Comoros”, his country of origin, with his family , the Loire prefecture announced on Tuesday.

Under an Obligation to Leave French Territory (OQTF) since October, Mmadi Ahamada, 35, had been under house arrest along with his wife at their home in Saint-Chamond since March 29.

A first attempt to remove the couple and their three young children born in France, where the imam entered in 2014, failed on April 23.

"Tested positive for Covid before boarding at Lyon Saint-Exupéry airport, the imam had been brought back to Saint-Chamond with his family," a police source told AFP.

“Obey your husband” to “enter Paradise”

In July, he had been suspended from his religious functions by the Attakwa mosque which employs him, at the request of the prefect of the Loire Catherine Séguin, for a sermon with content "discriminatory and contrary to equality between women and men", held outdoors during Eid el-Kébir, according to the state representative.

In a video of this July 20 sermon, posted on the mosque's Facebook page, the imam notably asked "Muslim women wishing to enter Paradise [to] obey [their] husband" and "ensure the rights of Allah and those of their husbands.

The prefect had then indicated in a press release that "in accordance with the instructions of the Minister of the Interior, the question of the non-renewal of his [residence] permit" was "under study".

No "threat to public order" according to the administrative court

The administrative court of Lyon had rendered a decision on March 18 in which it rejected the reason for "threat to public order" invoked by the prefect of the Loire in her decree of October 20, 2021 accompanied by an OQTF.

It also canceled the “ban on returning to French territory for a period of one year”.

The judges considered, however, that the prefect could “refuse the renewal of the temporary residence permit (bearing the mention “visitor”) of the person concerned, on the grounds that he [was] exercising, since the end of 2018, a salaried activity, in CDI" within the association managing the Attakwa mosque.

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Loire: Suspended after comments deemed discriminatory against women, the imam of Saint-Chamond risks expulsion

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Loire: An imam suspended after remarks deemed discriminatory against women

  • Company

  • Expulsion

  • Imam

  • Discrimination

  • Islam

  • Saint Etienne

  • Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes