French Prime Minister Criticizes Imams

[AP]

PARIS (AP) -- With France seeking to expel radical Muslim
leaders, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin on Monday criticized
clerics who are more "political preachers" than men of religion.
Speaking in parliament, Raffarin said the government has new
legal powers allowing it to punish "all those who engage in racism
or anti-Semitism."
"We have the legal means to show firmness -- including
expelling all those who say they are imams but are in fact political
preachers who have nothing to do with religious expression," he
said.
France has taken the lead in a get-tough trend among some
European governments over Islamic extremism, setting a policy of
actively going after imams -- prayer leaders -- whose discourse veers
into a defense of violence or runs counter to human rights.
At least two imams have been expelled since January, with
the government threatening to expel two more. A fifth is under
arrest.
The government crackdown has not been without setbacks.
Abdelkader Bouziane, an Algerian expelled from France last month,
has won a court ruling allowing him to return. The government says
he advocated violence in his sermons, and French media have quoted
him as saying he favors wife-beating and stoning of women.
The concern has been heightened by a realization that a
generation of marginalized Muslim youths is growing up alienated
from French mainstream society. These youths are widely blamed for a
wave of anti-Semitic violence in France.
Most of the 1,500 imams in France come from abroad, and
fewer than half speak French. The country's Muslim community of 5
million is the largest in western Europe.

[AP]

*Associated Press/AP Online

PARIS - With France seeking to expel radical Muslim leaders,

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin on Monday criticized clerics who
are more "political preachers" than men of religion.
Speaking in parliament, Raffarin said the government has new
legal powers allowing it to punish "all those who engage in
racism or anti-Semitism."

"We have the legal means to show firmness - including

expelling all those who say they are imams but are in fact political
preachers who have nothing to do with religious expression," he
said.
France has taken the lead in a get-tough trend among some
European governments over Islamic extremism, setting a policy of

actively going after imams - prayer leaders - whose discourse veers