Hassan Iquioussen

Nationality:

Moroccan

Place of Residence:

Denain, France

Occupation:

Islamic preacher

Medium:

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube

 

Bio

Hassan Iquioussen was born in 1964 in Denain in northeastern France to Moroccan immigrant parents.

After gaining a bachelor’s degree in Arabic and a master’s degree in history, he devoted himself to learning and transmitting Islam. Despite receiving no formal Islamic education, he founded the Young Muslims of France and quickly gained a reputation as “the preacher of the cités.”

Since 2012, he has used his YouTube channel to share controversial and conspiratorial views on subjects ranging from the Armenian genocide to recent terror attacks, and is known for making hateful, anti-Semitic, homophobic and misogynistic remarks.

Ideas

On Jews

Iquioussen has described Jews as “stingy and usurious,” accusing them of being “the best of betrayal and felony” and of avoiding “others they consider slaves.”

He said: “Remember that because you will understand what’s going on today. Jews have continued to plot against Islam and Muslims.”

On Judaism and Christianity

“The rabbis, the religious, the priests, the bishops exploit the little people by taking their money, by abusing their wives. Those who have power, whatever power, have always declared war on who? The Prophet!”

On Islamophobia and terrorist attacks

Iquioussen has made conspiratorial remarks and suggested that terror strikes in Western countries are “pseudo-attacks” orchestrated to fuel Islamophobia.

“You know this film, these cartoons, what is the goal? It’s not that non-Muslims hate us, that is already done, they did it with Sept. 11, they did it with July 18, London, Madrid. You see all these pseudo-affairs? Yes? These pseudo-attacks are intended to scare non-Muslims into fear of Islam and Muslims. But it’s not enough; it takes two to be in a war.

“So we must now put in the hearts of Muslims the hatred and fear of non-Muslims. How? By insulting the Prophet of Islam, by burning Qur’ans, you hear? That way Muslims will develop hatred in them, and that is good, we can create the famous clash of civilizations.

“That is the purpose of Islamophobia. I sell guns. Destroy yourself, I’m rebuilding behind. I’m selling medicine. Eat, I sell more newspapers, and I explode the television ratings.”

On women and marriage

“It is unfortunate that today women consider that serving their husbands and children is a punishment when it is a blessing.”

In 2014, on his YouTube channel, Iquioussen mocked a viewer who told him that she didn’t appreciate his comment that “the woman’s place is in the kitchen.” “The place of the woman is in the kitchen, in the living room,” he said. “I don’t see why you’re allergic to cooking. You think we are misogynistic. (But) it is obvious that it is the woman who is more often in the kitchen than the man. Generally the man is in the kitchen to open the fridge and take something, it is not to do the dishes or make food. So what?”

Iquioussen then suggested that not feeding one’s husband could lead to a fight: “My sister, Allah created you to work, to support and assume your responsibilities to your family. Wait, your kids are hungry, you’re not feeding them, and they will starve. Your husband’s hungry, you’re not feeding him — of course, it’s going to end in a fight.”

On the Armenian genocide

“More than 500,000 Armenians pressured the former president of France, Sarkozy, to pass a law to condemn the Turks for a sin they did not commit, we agree? The pseudo-Armenian genocide. The law has not been passed, so we can say that it did not exist. If the law had been passed, I would shut my mouth. True or false? If the law had been passed, I would not have been able to say that the Armenian genocide does not exist, because the law condemns me, whereas now I can have a blast. Look, I’m saying there was no genocide, and I have historical evidence that there was no genocide.”

 

Video

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Analysis

 

Hassan Iquioussen, the radical French Muslim preacher known for his anti-Semitic views and affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, is often referred to as “the preacher of the banlieues” because of his popularity among young urban Muslims.

Through his recordings and YouTube channel, Iquioussen has become one of the leading preachers of the Muslims of France (formerly the Union of Islamic Organizations of France), an organization with strong links to the Muslim Brotherhood. In 2014, the group was classified as a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates.

In his 2018 report on “the factory of Islamism” for the Montaigne Institute, a Paris think tank, essayist Hakim El Karoui described Iquioussen as a representative of “the hardest and most virulent trend of the Muslim Brotherhood in France.”

Iquioussen was born in 1964 in Denain in northeastern France to Moroccan immigrant parents. After gaining a bachelor’s degree in Arabic and a master’s degree in history, he devoted himself to learning and transmitting Islam. Despite receiving no formal Islamic education, he founded the Young Muslims of France and quickly gained a reputation as “the preacher of the cités.”

Since 2012, he has used his YouTube channel to share controversial and conspiratorial views on subjects ranging from the Armenian genocide to recent terror attacks, and is known for making hateful, anti-Semitic, homophobic and misogynistic remarks.

In 2004, the French daily newspaper L’Humanite revealed the anti-Semitic content of a sermon by Iquioussen entitled “Palestine, a Story of Injustice,” delivered a year earlier. In the recording, he refers to Jews as “stingy and usurious,” and accuses them of being “the best of betrayal and felony” and of avoiding “mixing with others they consider slaves.”

France’s interior minister at the time, Dominique de Villepin, criticised these virulent comments, after which Iquioussen said: “I condemn my inappropriate remarks. Anti-Semitism is a horror. I do a hundred surgeries a year. Sometimes I overflow; I have no qualms or shame in admitting my mistakes.”

In 2010, Iquioussen was seen with Alain Soral, the essayist, far-right activist and former Front National member known for his anti-Semitism, homophobia, misogyny and anti-communitarian views. Five years later, the preacher posted a video claiming that Soral “said very interesting, very intelligent, relevant things, though sometimes you may not agree with him on certain things.”