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| Africa North |
| Morocco Death for Apostates Fatwa Sparks Controversy |
| 2013-04-20 |
| [An Nahar] A fatwa published this week by Morocco's higher council of religious scholars (CSO) calling for the death penalty for Mohammedans who renounce their faith has sparked fierce controversy in the country. The scholars, who represent official Islam in Morocco, said in their edict, published in Tuesday's edition of Arabic-language daily Akhbar al-Youm, that Mohammedans who reject their faith "should be condemned to death." The fatwa, which has provoked strong reactions, dates back to April 2012 when a legal report was being prepared by the government, but it was not published at the time, according to local media. Mahjoub El Hiba, a senior human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... official in the government, denied in a statement to the official MAP news agency having requested any such fatwa from the council of Islamic scholars, as Akhbar al-Youm had claimed. "What was published in the document attributed to the CSO does not concern our government and commits us to nothing," Hiba told Agence La Belle France Presse. "I am not authorized to request advice or fatwas from the CSO. I do not have to comment on what a constitutional body like this does," he added. The CSO is the only institution entitled to issue fatwas in Morocco. The ministry of Islamic affairs declined to comment on the issue. Morocco's penal code does not explicitly prohibit apostasy, which is illegal in most Mohammedan countries, and punishable by death in some states such as Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , although in practice people are rarely executed for renouncing their faith. But Moroccan law states that "anyone attempting to undermine the faith of a Mohammedan or convert him to another religion" risks six months to three years in prison. |
| Posted by:Fred |