The State Secretary for Asylum and Migration, Sammy Mahdi, revoked the residence permit of Mohamed Toujgani, the head imam of the Al Khalil mosque in Molenbeek, the largest mosque in our country, in October last year, the VRT website NWS reported on Thursday.
The secretary of state made this decision based on information from the security services “due to indications of a serious threat to national security”, he said in a statement. The imam was given a notice to leave the country and told that he would be banned from entering the country for ten years. According to Mahdi’s office, the normal appeal period has expired, which Toujgani’s lawyer denies. According to VRT, the man is said to have already left the country.
As imam of the large Al Khalil mosque, he was particularly influential in the Islamic community in Brussels. He had lived in Belgium since 1982 and held Moroccan citizenship, Mahdi said.
“In the past, we gave 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 sending a clear signal that we will not tolerate those who divide us and threaten our national security,” he added.
The imam has been controversial for some time. Although he had lived in Belgium for several years, he did not speak Dutch or French. In addition, a video from 2009 surfaced ten years later. In it, he called for the ” Zionist oppressors” to be burned.lameuse.sudinfo.be