Italy: Hamas Supporting Imam Expelled

Zulfiqar Khan, Imam of Bologna expressed support for Hamas

The  Interior Minister has signed the removal order from Italian territory for reasons of state security.

-Editorial staff

8 October 2024  Updated at 15:26

Pakistani Zulfiqar Khan, the imam of the mosque at via Jacobo de Paolo in Bologna, was taken to the police headquarters in order to be expelled. The news was given in a press release in which his lawyer, Francesco Murru, spoke of,  “a return to a police state and the persuit of crimes of opinion”.

The Minister of Interior has signed an order of removal from Italian territory for reasons of state security: It noted that Zulfiqar has shown a fundamentalist vision of the concept of jihad, and, among other things, has exalted martyrdom and the work of the mujahadin in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, expressing support for Hamas.

Minister Matteo Piantedosi notes in the order of expulsion for Imam Zulfiqar Khan how since the autumn of 2023 he had raised attention for his “growing ideological fanatism” and his” propensity” towards radical positions, “characterized by a strong anti-Western and anti-Semitic resentment and by homophobic and anti-feminist rhetoric.” In one of his sermons, it is added, he exhorted the Muslim faithful to fight the intention of the State to impose taxes as the resources should remain within the Muslim community.

In a meeting in central Bologna, he reportedly defined homosexuality as “a disease to be cured”, that every Muslim has the right to fight “to avoid catastrophic consequences like the very extinction of the human race”. In videos posted on social media between November 2023 and April 2024, he accused Americans, Germans, French, English, and Italians of supporting, “the impure Zionists”, and in another, he invoked Allah to destroy the oppressors, that is, the Western nations that support Israel.  He will also be in a position to generate proselytization and be in contact with foreigners who have emerged in investigations for their belonging to “ultra-radical Islam” and in a position to further the infiltration into Bologna of political-religious and part-social, part-terrorist organizations. 

The 54-year-old Pakistani entered Italy in 1995 and holds a residence permit that was revoked at the time of the expulsion (order). The action must now be validated in court and can be appealed to TAR in Lazio (Administrative Regional Tribunal).