At least he faces legal action.
PARIS (Reuters) – An Algerian-born Muslim prayer leader in France faces legal action after he defended the stoning and beating of adulterous wives in a magazine interview, French Justice Minister Dominique Perben said Tuesday.
Abdelkader Bouziane, 52, imam of a mosque in the Lyon suburb of Venissieux in eastern France, told the monthly Lyon Mag that the Koran allowed husbands to beat unfaithful spouses as long as they did not strike them on the face.
Expressing disgust at “this archaic approach toward women,” Venissieux mayor Andre Gerin urged France’s justice and interior ministers Sunday to launch a probe into Bouziane’s preaching, which he said “pollutes our neighborhoods and our kids’ heads.”
“This man will have to explain his statements to a court,” Perben told France 2 television. France’s five million Muslims, the largest Islamic minority in Europe, are mostly of North African origin.
“Domestic violence is an abomination,” he said. “As soon as this article was published, I asked the criminal affairs office of the Justice Ministry to see how we can take legal action.”
Perben did not say what could happen to Bouziane, who has lived in France since 1979. France last week expelled an Algerian-born imam for preaching radical Islam and expressing support for the March 11 train bombings in Madrid.
Many mosques in France import imams from Arab states, a policy French authorities and moderate French Muslims oppose as a potential open door to radical Islam. But there are too few imams educated in France to staff all mosques.
Meanwhile, in a story about Rania al-Baz, the Saudi TV hostess who was savagely beaten by her husband, the dhimmis at CNN blandly tell us that “Islam prohibits violence against women.” (Thanks to LGF.) Tell it to Rania al-Baz or Abdelkader Bouziane — or Hani Ramadan.