ABSTRACT
In 1976, a young Turk named Mihdat Guler moved to France, where he lived quietly as a legal immigrant with a wife and five children. Guler became one of France’s 1,500 imams – Islamic scholars and prayer leaders – and, according to French authorities, began to incite hatred of the West in his sermons, allowing the distribution of newsletters in his prayer room that encouraged violence against non-Muslims. In May 2004, French authorities arrested Guler and sent him back to Turkey in accordance with a 1945 law that permits the government to deport any foreigner believed to be a threat “to the security of the state or public safety.”1 The French decision, authorities declared, was in the country’s national interest.
