World

Europeans are ousting imams for radicalism

PARIS - They have lived largely unnoticed for years, isolated from the French mainstream by language and religion. Now these imams, accused of preaching a radical brand of Islam, are being tracked, investigated and in some cases expelled. Taking the lead in a budding get-tough trend among some European governments, France has expelled at least two imams, or prayer leaders, since January, calling them a public danger. It threatens to expel two more, and a fifth is under arrest. Critics say the aggressive policy could do more harm than good, but France isn't alone. Italy deported an imam from Senegal in November, deeming him a "danger to state security." He had warned that Italian soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan risked attack. Days later 19 Italians in Iraq were killed. Britain jailed an imam from Jamaica for nine years in March 2003 for urging followers to kill Hindus, Jews and Americans. It is now trying to deport another high-profile cleric, Abu Hamza al-Masri, accusing him of advising and supporting terrorist groups, including al-Qaida. Spain considers law Spain, where 191 people died in the March 11 railroad bombings, is considering a law empowering authorities to monitor imams. But France has set a policy of actively going after imams whose discourse veers into a defense of violence or espouses values counter to democracy or human rights. Radical imams "are a natural bridge toward violence, that is, toward terrorism," said Stephane Berthomet, a former anti-terrorism investigator with the Interior Ministry. They also are a "social danger," he said, because "they reject the French system." But it's not so simple. European civil rights laws don't always lend themselves to swift expulsion, as Britain has learned in dealing with al-Masri. It revoked his citizenship five months ago, calling him a threat to the country's interests, but he appealed to a special immigration tribunal and a ruling is likely to take months. Abdelkader Bouziane, one of two imams expelled from France last month, quickly won a court ruling allowing him to return. The Algerian, who has 16 children from two wives, advocated violence in his sermons, the Interior Ministry said. French media had quoted him as saying he favors wife-beating and stoning of women.