Mauritania's seculars call for releasing the detainees
Mauritania, Politics, 5/10/2003

Senior Mauritanian scholars yesterday issued a statement to Mauritania's President Mu'aweya Weld Sedi Ahmad al-Taye' in which they expressed their " rejection of "jailing Imams and men of religion and preventing them from performing their rituals."

The statement which was under the name an "open message to the President of the republic" said "Preventing scholars, and religious advocates from performing their duty to guidance freely constitutes an unprecedented act to undermining reforms efforts, blocking the good, and encouraging corruption."

Prominent scholars have signed the statement, especially Imam Badda Ben al-Buseiri, the Mufti of Mauritania -- an unofficial post, and Abbah Weld Abdullah, Muhammad al-Amin Weld al-Hassan, in addition to 90 prominent figures, according to sources close to the Islamists.

The statement comes days after the detention of important Islamic leaders, especially Muhammad al-Hassan Weled al- Dado who is described as one of Mauritania's greatest scholars, Muhammad Jamil Weld Mansour, the Islamic activist and the prominent figure in the lines of the Mauritania's opposition.

Meantime, Mauritania's capital Nouakchott witnessed earlier in the day, demonstrations and sit-in, especially a strike at the capital's central market where traders closed shops in solidarity with the detainees, according to an official in the opposition.

Wives of the detained Islamists and the Baathists observed a sit-in in front of the ministry of the interior in Nouakchott. Opposition sources reported that the police used tear gas in dispersing the demonstrating women who regrouped in front of the Palace of Justice.

Meanwhile, the official spokesman for the party of the opposition democratic forces coalition party said that the current crisis between the government and the Baathist and Islamic coalition is because "the regime took unprecedented steps to opening an embassy for Israel and amending the educational curricula in a way that Islamic education and Arabic language were margined in the learning in favor of the French language."

Weld Sedi Mahmoud added that the Fatwa provided for forbidding relations with Israel, issued by Muhammad al-Hassan Weld al-Dadou, and signed by senior scholars, was behind the main reason of the steps taken by the regime against the sheikh and the Islamic opposition and the Baathists.

He explained that the opposition was calling for opening serious dialogue with the government on guarantees to make the presidential elections due next October "but the regime preferred to settle the fight in jails instead of voting ballots."

Previous Stories:
  Moroccan fm praises similarity of Moroccan-Mauritanian standpoints   (5/9/2003)
  Morocco's premier ends visit to Mauritania   (5/8/2003)
  Mu'eya detention acts to suppress opposition   (5/8/2003)

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