An Algerian-born Lyon imam who publicly endorsed women being stoned, wives being beaten and France becoming an Islamic nation was arrested Tuesday and will be expelled from France, report agencies.  

Abdelkader Bouziane, the imam of  al-Forquan mosque in  Vénisseux, a suburb of Lyon, said in a local magazine interview published this weekend that the Koran authorised husbands to hit their wives if they were unfaithful, but they should avoid hitting her face. "Not on the face, but on the legs or stomach. And he can strike hard, to frighten her off reoffending,"  he said.

He also declared that a woman does not have the right to work alongside men because "she could be tempted by adultery," and admitted that he favoured stoning as a punishment. 

Ordering the cleric's expulsion  Tuesday "as a public order measure aimed at protecting the national interest,"  an outraged French Justice minister Dominique Perben  said "the government cannot tolerate remarks being made, in public, that run counter to human rights and human dignity."

Moderate Muslims have condemned the imam's views, but warned against a "media witchhunt against ignorant and frustrated imams."

France has expelled at least five Muslim  preachers and clerics earlier so far  this year for promoting radical Islam, and banned head scarves in public schools last September as part of its effort to fight Muslim fundamentalism and ensure  equality for women.