French imam fined and sentenced for anti-Semitism in sermon

Online French publication, La Croix, reported that the incident began in 2017 after Imam, Mohamed Tataiat, 59, broadcasted a sermon on social media that was deemed “anti-Semitic” and a disrespect to the “French and Christian identity” by several civil groups. In the sermon, which was originally posted by the Grande Mosquée De Toulouse’s YouTube channel, Tataiat could be seen delivering words from the Prophet Mohammed (a “hadith”) and claiming, “Judgment will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews” … “The “Jews will hide behind the stones and the trees” … And that “there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him, except for the Gharqad tree, which is one of the trees of the Jews...”

Intense fighting

Tataiat’s words came after former President, Donald Trump’s announcement of moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which sparked intense fighting between Palestinians and Jews.

Last year on September 14th, the Toulouse Criminal Court acquitted the imam, but the prosecution appealed the case, and his hearing continued into 2022. Recently, on August 31st, Tataiat was sentenced to a four-month suspended prison sentence and fined 20,000 Euros. Jacques Samuel, a lawyer from the Jewish federation, Ben Gurion association, said in the La Croix report that the recent decision brings “satisfaction” and relief” and that the court has listened to the “dangerous nature” of his remarks. However, the Algerian imam, who has been residing in France since 1985, sees the sentence as being a “door open to the religious police.”