We are reproducing the text of the interview by Alexandre Devecchio published in FigaroVox on 03/08/2022 at 19:16
INTERVIEW – Bernard Rougier, director of the Center for Arab and Oriental Studies, discusses the career of Imam Hassan Iquioussen. According to him, the preacher, whom Gérald Darmanin wants expelled, played a considerable role in the re-Islamization of many young Muslims.
Bernard Rougier is also a professor at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University – Paris-III and edited the collective work “The Conquered Territories of Islamism” (PUF, 2021, 368 p., €23).
LE FIGARO. – Who is Hassan Iquioussen?
Bernard ROUGIER. – Originally from Souss, in Morocco, born in France, in Denain in the suburbs of Valenciennes, aged 58, Hassan Iquioussen corresponds to a very widespread figure in the European militant Islam scene, that of a charismatic preacher who has managed to conquer Islamic legitimacy by capturing a young audience, both in the virtual world of social networks, with thousands of subscribers on his Facebook page and his YouTube channel (more than 150.000) and in the physical world of the neighborhoods.
For the past twenty years, he has given numerous lectures in mosques in northern France—where he is based—in the Île-de-France region, and in Belgium, where, even more well-known than in France, he was a regular guest at Islamic institutes and lecture halls in Brussels, including the predominantly Catholic Saint-Louis University. At the time, between 2008 and 2010, he was the "second act" at lectures given by Tariq Ramadan , with whom he was close and who guaranteed him a large audience. He was also a frequent guest at the Paris Air Show, organized annually around Easter by the UOIF (Union of Islamic Organizations of France), which since 2017 has become Musulmans de France (Muslims of France), a Muslim Brotherhood-oriented organization.
Hassan Iquioussen played a considerable role in the "Islamic edification" of a generation now in its forties, whose training he supported as a guide and spiritual advisor. He gave his audience a strong community awareness by politicizing their religious affiliation. In this way, he spreads a kind of general Islamist culture, as others had done before him in the Middle East and the Maghreb. He is also a shrewd entrepreneur, who owns an impressive property portfolio that ensures him a comfortable lifestyle. Benefiting from their father's aura, and, above all, from his electoral strength, his sons, one of whom is a preacher, have also integrated the local political system in Denain, in Hauts-de-France, according to a mechanism of entryism unfortunately increasingly practiced by local elected officials.
Is he an Islamist?
The answer is obviously yes – he himself makes no secret of it and promotes Erdogan's Turkey whenever there are tensions with Europe. An ideological and politicized version of Islam, Islamism seeks to transform a religious tradition into an instrument of power and control, notably through the creation of binding norms. For this preacher from northern France, "Islam is the solution" to "global disorder" because "the world is run by people who are without faith or law. What is happening in the world today is due to the absence of Islam: Muslims are no longer in control!" (excerpt from a sermon in June 2014 at his mosque in Lourches, near Valenciennes). Iquioussen identifies with the Muslim Brotherhood movement and is the unconditional defender of its most eminent representative, the Egyptian-Qatari Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, known throughout the Arab world thanks to the program "Sharia and Life", broadcast for a long time on the Qatari channel al-Jazeera.
How far does this support for Sheikh al-Qaradawi go?
For Iquioussen, "all those who fight al-Qaradawi are allies of the enemies of Islam, allies of the despots and tyrants who rule the Muslim world" (excerpt from a lecture given about ten years ago). The northern sheikh does not disavow al-Qaradawi's main public positions: the killing of non-Muslims who have left Islam ("murtaddin"), whom he calls "traitors to the community," denunciation of the Oslo Accords, and the legitimization of suicide operations during the Second Intifada, including when the Israeli victims are non-combatant civilians—a solution also applicable to American civilians in Iraq after the 2003 occupation.
When Iquioussen explained, in a lecture given at the beginning of the Syrian conflict, that "the Shiites are now, clearly and unequivocally, our enemies" in an attempt to explain the clashes in Iraq and Syria, he was positioning himself—and his audience—within a generalized sectarian war that gave a theological and essentialist dimension to Middle Eastern conflicts of a political nature. I was able to observe, during interviews, the reality of a "Sunni communal patriotism" unimaginable in France some twenty years ago.
Does Iquioussen have a political position?
Hassan Iquioussen explicitly seeks to create a "Muslim political lobby" and to structure a "Muslim community vote" aimed at pressuring public authorities—in the same way, he says, that homosexuals forced the passage of the same-sex marriage law. His priority is to re-Islamize young Muslims to "lead them off drugs" and make them adherents to his collective and authoritarian vision of Islam.
Regarding municipal politics, Iquioussen posted a video in 2014 titled " Debate on Voting: Halal (Permitted) or Haram (Forbidden) , Shirk (Associationism) or the General Interest?", in which he explains "how to guarantee the Mayor the 853 votes of the mosque's worshippers" to structure a Muslim electorate. According to him, the method is simple. You have to see the mayor and tell him: "Last time, you won with 50 votes. I'm offering you 853. What does the mayor do? He genuflects and prostrates himself!"
What is the connection between the separatism law and this expulsion order?
The expulsion order is in line with the spirit of the law strengthening respect for republican principles – known as the law on separatism – passed on August 24, 2021, aimed in this case at punishing an Islamist preacher for “inciting hatred”. According to the explanations given to the National Assembly by the Minister of the Interior on Tuesday, August 2, Hassan Iquioussen, although born in France in 1964, refused to obtain French nationality when he came of age, which requires him to renew his residence permit every ten years. In May, the departmental commission had refused this renewal, probably due to the person concerned’s activism.
How do you analyse the reactions of solidarity in favour of Iquioussen and the petition signed by around twenty mosques in Hauts-de-France?
Those who are reacting today are the same as those who campaigned against the vote on the separatism law, denouncing the advent of "state Islamophobia" threatening freedom of expression.
Supported by decolonial and Islamo-leftist sympathisers, who see the government's policy as a neocolonial legacy, the Muslim Brotherhood network is mobilising to defend one of its emblematic figures, with the help of institutional and media outlets in Europe and the United States. A kitty has even been created for this purpose, which is indecent given the material means of the person concerned.
What more general lesson can be drawn from the current sequence?
In terms of political philosophy, the law on separatism reinforces the republican aspect of French democracy, following the accelerated development of its liberal aspect under the influence of European jurisprudence. This liberal aspect is constantly being exploited by less liberal forces to undermine, through a gradual process, the republican dimension of the State—the recognition of a common good through the identification of the citizen with the Republic. In this respect, the law separates the order of belief—the theological—from the order of action—the normative—in order to free Muslims from the risks of Islamist control over their tradition. Our Muslim compatriots must be able, in the name of their faith (or lack thereof), to subject this faith, richer and more diverse than Islamists claim, to a process of critical examination. Far from being a threat to freedom, the law appears to me rather as the legislative expression of the mass demonstration of January 11, 2015, following the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo offices . It acknowledges the link between the high end of the spectrum – terrorist action – and the low end of the spectrum – preaching of rupture, which seeks to pit Muslims against the rest of the world.
