French imam investigated for incitement over anti-Semitic sermon

Prosecutors in France launch an investigation for incitement against a senior Muslim cleric from Toulouse who recited anti-Semitic religious passages and predicted Israel’s destruction.

The Toulouse Prosecutor’s Office opened the probe against Mohamed Tatai, the imam of the newly inaugurated Grand Mosque of Toulouse and the leader of an interfaith dialogue group, the Sud Ouest daily reported.

In a sermon delivered on December 15, 2017, Tatai recited a Muslim text, called a Hadith, stating that on Judgment Day, the Muslims will kill the Jews.

Imam Mohamed Tatai gives a sermon at the Grand Mosque in Toulouse, France, on December 15, 2017. (Screen capture: YouTube)

Toulouse Prosecutor Dominique Alzeari wrote in a document connected to the investigation that “after verifying the facts connected to the dissemination of the sermon,” including with a certified translation of it from Arabic, his office opened an investigation for alleged “public verbal provocation to hatred or violence because of [the victim’s] origins, ethnicity, nationality, race or religion.”

— JTA