Paris–France's interior minister says that a radical Muslim imam and a "preacher of hate" has been expelled to his Egyptian homeland.
A statement says that Ali Ibrahim El Soudany, a former prayer leader at a mosque in Pantin, just northeast of Paris, was expelled in January, then showed up again in France. He was urgently expelled Thursday.
Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux says in the statement that El Soudany repeatedly spoke in a "violently hostile" manner against the West.
El Soudany's expulsion brings to 29 the number of imams forced out of France since 2002 in a policy to crackdown on foreign-born Muslim preachers who use mosques to espouse radical views. The ministry says that a total 125 radical Islamists of all sorts have been expelled.
