Moroccan Salafist Leader Criticizes Public Gatherings Amid Pandemic

Some say they are taking advantage of the pandemic to try, once again, to impose their restrictive ideology of all freedoms on Moroccans. Their spokesman, Hassan Kettani, is known on social networks for his publications inciting hatred. He has for example denounced on his Facebook account the closure of mosques, highlighting the maintenance of religious rites in Israel: "So that the accomplishment of Talmudic prayers is not interrupted, the Israeli government has decided to authorize prayer three times a day in front of the Wailing Wall, provided that the number of believers does not exceed 10 people," reports Assabah.

"Kettani has multiplied messages aimed at unsettling Muslim citizens subject to the state of health emergency." This is how he called on them to avoid television channels, specifically naming 2M which, he says, "would need to be quarantined for the harm it does to Moroccans". He advised his disciples to refrain from reading the national press, claiming that this "press of shame has no other purpose than to mock the religious, their scholars and their youth".

For Hassan Kettani, "the virtuous people constitute a safety valve for Moroccan society. We must respect them, show them the greatest consideration and follow their guidance, or a deluge of calamities will fall upon us." He also criticized with irony the decisions of the government: "Is it possible not to perform the funeral prayer? This is unacceptable, because this prayer is an obligation," he said.