Spain expels a Moroccan radicalized Imam

The Spanish police, together with the country’s intelligence services, expelled on Wednesday, 31st  of October, a Morocco Imam who had been working since the beginning of the year in the municipality of El Ejido (Almeria), says Spanish newspaper El Pais.

The 40-year-old man «was making radical remarks in the mosque, where people were gathering as a group», say investigators. The Imam criticized, in particular, the integration of Muslims into the Spanish society and has showed signs of radicalization in the recent months.

The Imam was also staying illegally in Spain and had already been the subject of an investigation, associated with radicalization and the Salafist doctrine.

The suspect had arrived in El Ejido from the Netherlands in 2016. He had also been operating as an Imam in the At-Tawhid mosque in Cordoba in 2017, «thanks to influential people of this religious center, all considered radicalized».

He was expelled from Spain through the Beni Ansar border crossing in Melilla and will not be able to enter the Schengen area for the next five years.

He is the fifth Imam to be expelled by the Spanish authorities over radicalization.