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Mauritanian
authorities had recently cracked down hard on
"Islamists"
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By
Abdouti Ould Aal, IOL Mauritania Correspondent
NOUAKCHOTT,
July 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - 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."
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.
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."
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.
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."
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.
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 for protesting
against the escalation of the detention
campaign against Islamic activists, especially (opposition) Muslim Brotherhood.
