Self-Proclaimed ’Mahdi’ Arrested After Disrupting Mosque Sermon in Marrakech

The incident took place in a mosque in Marrakech. The individual, in his fifties, would have told the worshippers that he was the Mahdi come to save them, calling on them to believe in him and worship him, reports the website Rue 20. But he failed to convince them. The worshippers arrested him and then took him to the police station.

This is not the first time a man has claimed to be the Mahdi. In Egypt, the authorities recently arrested a man who claimed to be the Mahdi, in Qutour, in the Gharbiyah province, north of Cairo. Mohammed Habash had posted several messages on social media and claimed that he "walked according to God’s order and received instructions from Him".

Mohammed was imprisoned for "spreading false beliefs about the Islamic religion and claiming that he was the promised Mahdi on social media," according to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram.