Hassen Chalghoumi

Who is Hassen Chalghoumi?

Hassen Chalghoumi presents himself as Imam of the municipal Drancy mosque in Seine-Saint-Denis. According to believers, he is not the appointed imam of the mosque.

He stood out during the Islamic scarf controversy in France for supporting French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s draft law to ban the burqa. He has good relations with Jewish organisations in France, which sometimes caused demonstrations and clashes in Drancy mosque. Protesters want to change Imam because he is unrepresentative of Muslim people. In 2009, he founded the "Conference of Imams", an organisation which aim is to publish "fatwas" for Muslims living in France.

On burqa, he stated that "with a bit of cloth over their faces, what can these women share with us? If they want to wear the veil, they can go to a country where it's the tradition, like Saudi Arabia".

He studied in Syria and Pakistan in fundamentalists medersa before coming to France in 1996. He was a member of the Tablighi Jamaat until 2005. He is naturalised as a French citizen in 2005.

Some of his opposents call him "Imam of the Jews" for his activism with the French Jewish organisation CRIF. In 2006, he made a speech in front of the deportation memorial in Drancy. His house was vandalized a few days later, although no link has been established between these two events.