The Italian interior ministry issued expulsion orders for an imam of a mosque in Turin in northern Italy on public order and security grounds, the online version of the Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported on Wednesday. Mohamed Kohaila, 44, was accused last year of delivering fundamentalist sermons at Turin mosque in a television programme aired on Italian state-run RAI television.
During the programme, broadcast on 29 March 2006, hidden cameras were used to film Kohaila as he called on Muslims not to integrate with Christians and Jews in Italy, according Corriere della Sera. The video also showed photocopies of a newspaper said to be close to al-Qaeda.
The TV programme led to an investigation into Kohaila's activities by the authorities in Turin. The explusion orders issued on Wednesday now have to be validated by local judges.
Reacting to the explusion order, the Italian Muslim website, Islam-online.it said that that they were "amazed" by the details of this case. The website also said it was
"Kuhaila and the association in which he is the imam have been the subject of a provocation," said Hamza Piccardo, the leader of the main Italian Muslim group, the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy (UCOII).
Must have been the Joooooos!
"In a video that was filmed using hidden cameras, documents praising Jihad were 'found' in the mosque on Via Cottolengo and then it was reported and 'translated' that in the imam's sermon he preached of a war against unbelievers," he said.
"The incident created the furore that the organisers expected it to do, and some politicians called for the immediate expulsion of Kuhaila."
Turin based daily La Stampa reported that after the magistrates in Turin studied the imam's sermon, they said that it did not contain any reference to violence but instead asked Muslims not to "exacerbate religious aspects".
By not integrating with Christians and Joooos.