{"id":142583,"date":"2025-05-30T11:33:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T11:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/imam-of-the-bleuets-mosque-in-marseille-sentenced-to-six-months-suspended-for-glorifying-terrorism-teknomers\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T11:33:02","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T11:33:02","slug":"imam-of-the-bleuets-mosque-in-marseille-sentenced-to-six-months-suspended-for-glorifying-terrorism-teknomers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/imam-of-the-bleuets-mosque-in-marseille-sentenced-to-six-months-suspended-for-glorifying-terrorism-teknomers\/","title":{"rendered":"Imam of the Bleuets mosque in Marseille sentenced to six months suspended for &#8220;glorifying terrorism.&#8221; &#8211; Teknomers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div id=\"\">\n<figure class=\"article__media\">\n        <picture class=\"article__media\"><source  \n\n                     alt=\"Sma\u00efn Bendjilali, l\u2019imam de la mosqu\u00e9e des Bleuets, entour\u00e9 des ses avocats, lors d\u2019une conf\u00e9rence de presse \u00e0 Marseille, le 9 septembre 2024.\"\n                    width=\"664\" height=\"443\"><br \/>\n                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/fa2847c_5630775-01-06.jpg\"\n                    alt=\"Sma\u00efn Bendjilali, l\u2019imam de la mosqu\u00e9e des Bleuets, entour\u00e9 des ses avocats, lors d\u2019une conf\u00e9rence de presse \u00e0 Marseille, le 9 septembre 2024.\"\n                     width=\"664\" height=\"443\"\/><br \/>\n            <\/source>\n        <\/picture>\n        <noscript><br \/>\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/fa2847c_5630775-01-06.jpg\"\n                alt=\"Sma\u00efn Bendjilali, l\u2019imam de la mosqu\u00e9e des Bleuets, entour\u00e9 des ses avocats, lors d\u2019une conf\u00e9rence de presse \u00e0 Marseille, le 9 septembre 2024.\"\/><br \/>\n        <\/noscript><figcaption class=\"article__legend\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Sma\u00efn Bendjilali, l\u2019imam de la mosqu\u00e9e des Bleuets, entour\u00e9 des ses avocats, lors d\u2019une conf\u00e9rence de presse \u00e0 Marseille, le 9\u00a0septembre 2024.<span class=\"article__credit\" aria-hidden=\"true\">MIGUEL MEDINA\/AFP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph\">A \u00a0controversial imam\u00a0 from Marseille, noted in a recent report about the \u00a0Muslim Brotherhood\u00a0, was sentenced on May 30 to six months in prison (suspended) for &#8221;\u00a0apology of terrorism\u00a0&#8220;. This decision stemmed from a post he made on social media platform \u00a0X\u00a0 concerning the \u00a0Hamas attack\u00a0 in Israel on October 7, 2023. The correctional court of Marseille also imposed a fine of \u00a0\u20ac2,000\u00a0 and a \u00a0five-year ban\u00a0 on civil rights, along with his registration in the file of terrorist offense authors (Fijait).<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph\">The imam, known as \u00a0Ismail\u00a0 (real name \u00a0Sma\u00efn Bendjilali\u00a0), was found guilty of republishing a video in July 2024 that claimed the attack on October 7, which resulted in more than \u00a01,200 Israeli deaths\u00a0, was *&#8221;legitimate defense.&#8221;* However, he was acquitted on another post where he shared a video accusing Israeli soldiers of torturing a Palestinian, stating, *&#8221;with Daesh [the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State], they are just choir boys.&#8221;*<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph\">The correctional court followed the requisitions of the public prosecutor, except for a request for a six-month ban on using social media X and a \u00a0permanent prohibition\u00a0 from working as an employee within the mosque of the Bleuets.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"article__sub-title\">The Imam and His Mosque in the Report on the Muslim Brotherhood<\/h2>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph\">After the judgment, the imam declared to the press that he planned to resume his religious activities &#8220;*&#8221;with pride*&#8221; during the upcoming Friday sermon. He insisted, *&#8221;Relaying is not adhering, and I did not agree with those statements.&#8221;* He accused that anytime someone defends Palestinians, they are labeled as \u00a0anti-Semitic\u00a0 or a \u00a0terrorist\u00a0, stressing, *&#8221;This will not silence us.&#8221;*<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph\">His lawyer, \u00a0Sefen Guez Guez\u00a0, who has not ruled out an appeal, hailed a *&#8221;partial acquittal&#8221;* as a *&#8221;disavowal after the public prosecutor&#8217;s requisitions, which requested a permanent ban on exercising the function of imamate.&#8221;* He highlighted the *&#8221;connections between a desire from the Ministry of the Interior to close this mosque and the condemnation of Mr. Bendjilali.&#8221;*<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph\">Bendjilali and the mosque had been at the center of an administrative battle in late summer, as the police prefect of \u00a0Bouches-du-Rh\u00f4ne\u00a0 threatened to close the mosque at the request of former Interior Minister \u00a0G\u00e9rald Darmanin\u00a0, due to the imam&#8217;s statements and online posts. The procedure was eventually suspended after the latter temporarily stepped down to obtain a university diploma on \u00a0secularism\u00a0 and deleted his tweets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph\">The imam Ismail and the mosque of the Bleuets are mentioned in the report on the \u00a0Muslim Brotherhood\u00a0 commissioned by the government and released last week. The imam, who is a \u00a0French national\u00a0, is described as *&#8221;of a rather Salafist sensitivity but using the codes of Fr\u00e9risme,&#8221;* and it is noted that *&#8221;he enjoys great popularity among young Muslims thanks to his mastery of social media.&#8221;* Furthermore, over the years, the mosque and its affiliated associations have become significantly influential in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph\">When interviewed by \u00a0Agence France-Presse\u00a0, the imam criticized the *&#8221;incompetence of the government, which does not know how to categorize us: Salafism, now Fr\u00e9risme, when they are opposing trajectories.&#8221;* He ironically stated, *&#8221;I also learned that I was infiltrating through my social and charitable actions\u2026 now even when you want to do good, it is seen as infiltration.&#8221;* He added, *&#8221;They put targets on our backs,&#8221;* expressing concern that *&#8221;this report casts suspicion on Muslims,&#8221;* and that *&#8221;the current government is taking a trajectory that is truly worrying for the future.&#8221;*<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/category\/general\/\" rel=\"dofollow\">General News &#8211; 2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sma\u00efn Bendjilali, l\u2019imam de la mosqu\u00e9e des Bleuets, entour\u00e9 des ses avocats, lors d\u2019une conf\u00e9rence de presse \u00e0 Marseille, le 9\u00a0septembre 2024.MIGUEL MEDINA\/AFP A \u00a0controversial imam\u00a0 from Marseille, noted in a recent report about the \u00a0Muslim Brotherhood\u00a0, was sentenced on May 30 to six months in prison (suspended) for &#8221;\u00a0apology of terrorism\u00a0&#8220;. This decision stemmed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}