French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin (who is a man) is embarking on a simplistic, unilateral, racist campaign to expel foreign imams of the Religion of Peace™ from France, unjustly accusing these religious leaders of extremism, violating their civil rights, and causing them severe humiliation, in a stunning act of state-sponsored terrorism that is bound to further enflame an already dangerously over-inflamed Arab Street™: Villepin targets non-French�imams. (Hat tip: Ted.)

Speaking a day after he deported an Algerian imam for saying Islam let husbands beat adulterous wives, Villepin urged the country’s prefects Thursday to expel any foreign preacher who advocated violence, hate, racism or abuses of human rights.

Only about 10 percent of imams in France are citizens and about half of all imams in the country speak French, experts say.

Most are imported from Arab countries, where some have been trained in radical Islamist views that clash with France’s secular laws.

But mainstream Muslim leaders’ calls for help require funds, scarce at a time when France is struggling to cut its huge budget deficit. Their appeals for subsidies also conflict with the country’s strict separation of church and state.

“We must face the issue of training imams,” Villepin told a meeting of prefects, who oversee the application of government policy in departments across France.

“I ask you to help the Muslim faith get organized better and more quickly so a real French Islam can emerge,” he said, adding that training programs would help the official French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) to supervise imams.