French Interior Minister Manuel Valls warned Islamists that preaching hatred in France would not be tolerated, telling hardliners as he inaugurated a mosque that they would be expelled if they challenged the Republic’s principles. Valls’ message underscored the tough line that President Francois Hollande’s government has taken towards Islamists who were furious over the publication of cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad in a French magazine last week.
Valls also used the mosque’s inauguration to say more prayer sites for Muslims needed to be built, an issue that arose during Sarkozy’s term with a controversy over illegal street prayers.
