Moroccan Police Report 160 Offenses at Religious Sites in 2024

During a meeting organized on Sunday in Rabat by the Supreme Council of Ulema, Boubker Sabik, general controller and spokesman for the DGSN, specified that out of the 160 cases handled, there were 3 in traditional educational establishments, 10 in mausoleums and religious brotherhoods, 144 in the vicinity of mosques, 3 in Christian places of worship (churches), and no cases recorded in Jewish places of worship.

"While the decline in crime indicators in these places is notable, the most important element remains that most of the cases recorded essentially concern begging or verbal and physical violence, without any serious crime threatening security being reported, with the exception of a few isolated acts committed by individuals suffering from mental disorders against worshippers."

According to the official, "this decline is explained by the fact that places of worship are naturally protected by a religious discourse that elevates and rectifies the soul, and in which the factors that encourage delinquency and deviance are non-existent."

He added: "This does not mean the total absence of crime in religious places and events, as evidenced by the arrest of a Moroccan citizen of the Jewish faith in flagrante delicto of serious crimes during Yom Kippur, the increase in cases of nocturnal addiction during the month of Ramadan, as well as the rise in acts of witchcraft during Ashura."