The imam has repeatedly expressed support for Hamas in the context of the war in the Gaza Strip and praised the militants’ actions during the clashes with Israeli troops, the report said on Tuesday.
The imam was taken to the Bologna police department, Italian media reported. The Interior Ministry’s decision can be appealed in the regional administrative court. His lawyer reportedly called the authorities' actions a return to a police state and the persecution of opinions.
Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights states that "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression."
Khan has lived in Italy since 1995 and held a residency permit that was revoked by the Interior Ministry's order.
Khan is not the first imam to be expelled from Italy due to his speech. In 2008, Tuirin imam Mohamed Kohaila was deported to his native Morocco for what authorities claimed was inciting "violently anti-Western behavior" after his sermons were secretly recorded. And in 2005, imam Bouriki Bouchta, also from Morocco, was expelled from Italy after he gained notoriety for saying that Osama bin Laden did not commit the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.