Morocco Bans Political Activity in Mosques Ahead of Elections

This warning, which comes before each electoral deadline, was made following an oral question in the first Chamber, relating to the relationship between politics and religion, asked by a deputy of the PJD. Thus, reports the daily Assabah, Ahmed Toufiq was keen to separate religious affairs from politics, stressing that mosques and other places of worship, neutral grounds, cannot be spaces dedicated to political practices and debates.

He advises the elected members of the Islamist party against any attempt to attract officials of these places of worship, assuring them that a given political current could provide an answer to their concerns. Any interference in the management of religious affairs could have deplorable consequences, he warned, noting that in this area, only the supreme interest of the community must prevail.

It is in this sense that the imams and other religious officials in office are prohibited from political and trade union affiliation, in accordance with the pillars of the reform of the religious field undertaken for several years in the country. This contributes to the strengthening of religious practices, given that imams must not mix politics and religion. "We do not want politics to be distorted by religion," Toufiq recalled, attached to the principle of a clear separation between politics and religion and to the neutrality of mosques and other places of worship. These places cannot, under any circumstances, serve as a battlefield between political trends and parties, Toufiq concluded.