- Mahjoub Mahjoubi, 52, was flown to North Africa 12 hours after he was arrested
France has deported a Tunisian cleric who allegedly called the country's flag satanic.
Mahjoub Mahjoubi, 52, was flown to North Africa just 12 hours after his arrest over sermons said to go against French values.
His deportation last Thursday is seen as a demonstration of tough immigration laws brought in by president
Emmanuel Macron.
Mr Mahjoubi had gone viral on social media after apparently referring to France's three-coloured flag as 'satanic'.
He was arrested and deported despite living in the country since the 1980s and raising five children there.
Unlike them he did not have French citizenship and had his residency permit cancelled.
The official order for Mr Mahjoubi's expulsion said that in sermons 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' and called for 'the destruction of Western society', the indictment said.
He also allegedly described the tricolore – without saying he meant the French flag – as of 'no value to Allah'.
Mr Mahjoubi, who runs a construction company, claimed it had been a slip of the tongue, adding: 'I will fight to return to France, where I have lived for 40 years.'
He said his family, including his youngest child who is in hospital for cancer treatment, depended entirely on him.
Well at least the French are playing hardball for the moment