ROME – Zulfiqar Khan, a 54-year-old imam at the mosque on via Jacopo di Paolo in Bologna, has been taken to court on Tuesday for deportation from Italy. Zulfiqar, who immigrated from Pakistan in 1995, has repeatedly showed his support for the concept of jihad, and has supported martyrdom, Mujahidin and Hamas as reported by Il Fatto Quotidiano. 

 In the case for deportation, the Interior Minister Matteo Piatendosi claims that in autumn 2023 Zulfiqar became known for his “growing fanatic ideology” which supported “radical positions” heavily associated with homophobic and antisemitic rhetoric. 

 It is noted that in one of his sermons, Zulfiqar called for Muslims to not pay taxes to the state, and instead keep their financial resources exclusively for the Muslim community. In a meeting in the centre of Bologna, he defined homosexuality as “a disease to be treated.”  

 Furthermore, in videos published between November 2023 and April 2024, Zulfiqar accused Americans, Germans, French, English and Italians of supporting “impure Zionists” and called on Allah to destroy the “oppressors”, referring to all the western states which support Israel. Zulfiqar has therefore been investigated for his part in creating a “ultra radical Islam” environment in Bologna, which included favouring the infiltration into the Bolognese territory of political-religious and para-terrorist organisations. 

 Zulfiqar’s lawyer Francesco Murru has denounced the “return to the police state and prosecution for thought-crimes.” Contrastingly, Matteo Salvini, the minister for transport in Italy has exalted that “we finally sent him home.” 

 tjpw