Friday, January 11, 2008

Italy expels Muslim cleric for "anti-Western" sermons

Chalk one up for sanity and self-preservation.

(ANSA) - Turin, January 9 - Italy on Wednesday deported to Morocco a Muslim cleric who the interior ministry said posed a risk for national security. Mohamed Kohaila, 44, was an imam or prayer leader at a mosque in Turin who was secretly filmed last year giving what was considered to be an anti-Western sermon. The video was broadcast by state television on a news talk show in March after which both local judicial authorities and the interior ministry opened investigations. Although the magistrates here decided the case should be shelved, a probe by the interior ministry, which re-translated the video footage, concluded that the imam was dangerous and should be expelled.

Kohaila had been in Italy for the past 15 years and operated a specialised butcher shop in Turin....

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