The Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration and the National Lottery of Belgium, Sammy Mahdi, who withdrew the residence permit of Moroccan Mohamed Toujgani, principal imam of the Al Khalil mosque in Molenbeek, the largest in country, last October, indicated that the latter had been withdrawn this right of residence in Belgium because considered “a threat to national security”, in particular for having called for “the burning of Jews” in a video, broadcast on the web.
Sammy Mahdi, a member of the Christian People’s Party (CD&V) of Iraqi descent for being the son of a Shiite political refugee who was persecuted in Iraq when the Sunnis ruled, did not specify the expulsion date, claiming only this Thursday in front of the deputies that the imam, Mohamed Toujgani, was not currently on Belgian territory.
« In the past, we have given too much leeway to radical preachers. This man was probably the most influential preacher in Belgium. With this decision, we are making a difference and giving a clear signal: we will not tolerate those who divide and threaten our national security », Continued the Secretary of State in the hemicycle, pushing the Imam little by little throughout his statements. The stay ban, for “extremism” and “interference”, covers a period of ten years, he further added.
Mohamed Toujgani, who preached until last year at the Al-Khalil mosque in Molenbeek, one of the largest Muslim places of worship in Belgium, had his residence permit withdrawn “on October 12” 2021, had indicated in the morning the services of Mahdi in a press release.
The Secretary of State made this decision on the basis of information from the security services “due to signs of a serious danger to national security”, it was explained in the document of the department of Sammy Mahdi. . An order to leave the country was then served on the imam.
According to Sammy Mahdi’s office, the normal appeal period has expired, which Toujgani’s lawyer disputes. The imam has a wife and children in Belgium. Toujgani had been living in Belgium since 1982 (40 years) and had Moroccan nationality, said Sammy Mahdi, according to whom, “ despite the fact that he (imam) lived in Belgium for several years, he did not master either Dutch or French« .
The imam, now considered a radical preacher by the Belgian authorities, had been the subject of controversy for some time. In 2009, he once more called for the burning of oppressive Jews, ”according to this press release. The video had resurfaced in 2019, said the VRT a Flemish media by which the information arrived, stressing that Toujgani had apologized for these remarks, evoking “a slippage” related to “the war” carried out by Israel once morest the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Still according to the Belgian Secretary of State, Toujgani preached a very conservative Islam. “Experts” classify it among the Muslim Brotherhood, a controversial politico-Islamic movement in Belgium according to State Security, it is essentially peaceful, but in the long term, it aims for a progressive Islamization of society.
In previous notes – much debated moreover – State Security had written that the Muslim Brotherhood ” create a climate of segregation and polarization, which can be fertile ground for (violent) radicalization ” .
Even more, the Belgian State Security, decidedly very ungrateful towards the services rendered by its Moroccan counterpart during the painful events in Belgium and which had allowed the arrest of the greatest terrorists of all time in Europe and in particular that of Salah Abdeslam in Molenbeeck, attacked Moroccan intelligence.
Indeed, his services believed to know that Imam Mohamed Toujgani was spying for the benefit of the Kingdom of Morocco in reference to his status as president of the League of Moroccan Imams. A League which some say spread extremism and practice espionage. In the good tradition of the dog slaughtered because the master considered him mad.
