Former Moroccan Minister Quits Islamist PJD Party Amid Internal Tensions

"It is with a heart full of pain in the face of what the experience of the Party of Justice and Development has become that I announce my resignation from the party and all its bodies from this moment on," wrote Abdelkader Amara, one of the founding members of the Islamist party, without elaborating on the reasons for his resignation. The former minister would certainly be outraged by the communiqué published at the end of Saturday’s meeting by the PJD’s general secretariat, in which the party evokes a link between the powerful and devastating earthquake that has mourned Morocco and the collective sins of the kingdom.

"We must be aware that the fact of ’returning to God’ means that we have strayed from Him in certain aspects of our lives. We must therefore return to God, so that He may heal our wounds and compensate us for our trial. But we must also reflect as a nation to determine whether what has happened may be the result of our sins, our transgressions and our violations, not only in the individual sense, but also in the collective and political sense," said the party led by Abdelillah Benkirane.