According to the expulsion order, Mahjoub Mahjoubi had  referred to Jewish people as “the enemy”.

France has expelled to Tunisia an imam who made “unacceptable remarks” about the country’s flag, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced.

Mahjoub Mahjoubi appeared to call the French flag “satanic” in a video that went viral online earlier this week.

The French media reported that the expulsion order mentions that the imam had promoted a “retrograde, intolerant, and violent image of Islam, likely to encourage behaviour contrary to the values of the Republic”.

It said his teachings encouraged discrimination against women, “tensions with the Jewish community” and “jihadist radicalisation”.  According to the order, he had also referred to Jewish people as “the enemy”.

He was expelled “less than 12 hours after his arrest”, Minister Darmanin said, adding that France’s immigration reforms had enabled the swift deportation of the imam.

Mahjoubi, who said ‘’he had not meant to be disrespectful,’’ was an imam at the Ettaouba mosque in the small town of Bagnols-sur-Cèze, in the south of France.

He was arrested earlier this week after a video circulated online showing him describing a “tricolour flag” as “satanic” and saying it has “no value with Allah”.