Chloé Lagadou (on site), edited by Juliette Moreau Alvarez 7:54 p.m., September 3, 2022
On Saturday, a demonstration in support of Imam Hassan Iquioussen was organized at Place de la République in Paris.
200 people gathered to denounce the multiplication of attacks against the Muslim community for "decades".
The imam, on the run, is now the subject of a European warrant.
The Place de la République in Paris hosted this Saturday from 3 p.m. a demonstration in support of Imam Hassan Iquioussen.
This monk is about to be expelled from France after a long administrative procedure motivated by the Council of State, but he remains untraceable and on the run.
In the capital, about 200 people decided to meet, in a calm atmosphere, with a mixture of slogans and militant speeches.
Some responded to the call to demonstrate in support of the imam launched on social networks by the Muslim Perspectives association.
Others have stopped spontaneously.
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“It is the entire Muslim community that is targeted”
The demonstrators brandished several signs where one could read for example "Proud to be Muslim" or "Support for Iquioussen".
In the loudspeakers, many messages to support the imam: "Freedom for Iquioussen" can be heard on the microphone.
"Enough Islamophobia!"
chant the demonstrators.
On the other hand, establishing contact with the demonstrators was a little more complicated: the organizers suggested to those present not to respond to the media.
Standing on the fountain in the Place de la République, one of the organizers of the demonstration explains the demands of this gathering at the microphone.
"We come to support Hassan Iquioussen because it is not just him who is targeted. Through him, the entire Muslim community is targeted. It is the imams of all the mosques who, potentially, can be targeted," he said.
"Muslims are today the object of multiple attacks on mosques, schools, associations and NGOs. The authorities are dismantling one after the other the structures built by the Muslim community for decades."
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If the rally is now over, the organizers still call on the demonstrators to continue the fight in support of Imam Hassan Iquioussen, who is now the subject of a European arrest warrant.