| Submit your comments on this article |
| East/Subsaharan Africa |
| Mauritanian Places Mosques Under State Control |
| 2003-07-01 |
| From Islam Online: The Mauritanian cabinet ratified Monday, June 30, a bill turning mosques into state-run public facilities. The decision follows a sweeping arrest campaign that netted some 60 Imams and preachers for allegedly "plotting against the state security" and led to the closure of six religious institutes, associations and Islamic-oriented newspapers. Minister of Communications and Relations with Parliament Hammoud Ould Mohammad told reporters the new law would make turn mosques to "public facilities." "All your base belong to us!" He argued this aimed at "securing for such sacred places legal guarantees and provide them with necessary legal protection and support, so that they could undertake their noble tasks properly." The new move "will protect mosques from any conduct violating its sanctity and the country's Malik school of jurisprudence," said the minister. He added that the law also addresses "the pivotal role played by mosques Imams and their assistants, who do make every effort to deliver the mosque message. Meaning "We are going to protect you from yourself." The new legislation outlines financial and moral assistance given to Imams and their assistants, said Ould Mohammad. The former minister of culture and Islamic orientation had threatened three months ago to change "the mosques which change its course into bakeries." "Or parking lots, we haven't decided yet" The police campaign also coincided with an intense media campaign spearheaded by the government that enlisted employees from the ministry of Waqf (endowments) and the "appointed " supreme Islamic council. Although the media campaign was brought to a halt following the foiled coup d' etat earlier in June, the country's "Islamists' file" has not yet showed any sign of breakthrough. Kind of like "The X-Files". On Monday, a court judge suspended, in a surprising move, investigations with arrested Imams, though only three of them have not been questioned. The Imams are facing charges of "plotting against the state security and the country's constitutional system and working through unauthorized organizations." Got enough evidence, did you? Last month, Mauritanian political sources familiar with the foiled putsch strenuously denied that the incident was Islamic-oriented, noting that it came in response to the latest wave of arrests of Muslim scholars in the Islamic country. Huh? The putsch wasn't islamic related, it was caused by arresting islamic scholars? Must be the translation, or the heat, or something. On May 24, the Mauritanian Center for Human Rights, the Public Mauritanian Front, the Afro-Arab Committee for Salvation and the Mauritanian Movement for Democracy and Citizenship called in Paris (where else?) for protesting against the escalation of the detention campaign against Islamic activists, especially (opposition) Muslim Brotherhood. Is there anybody who doesn't want to arrest the Muslim Brotherhood? |
| Posted by:Steve |