Moroccan Islamic affairs minister urges mosque preachers for moderation

Moroccan minister of habous (Islamic endowments) and Islamic affairs, Abdelkebir Alaoui Mdaghri, called on Thursday mosque preachers to be moderate and balanced in their preaches and to adopt the Malekite rite as a pillar to consolidate national unity.

The minister who met on Thursday Ulema (Islamic scholars) and preachers of the mosques of Casablanca invited them to avoid expressing political positions and taking as a reference ideologies that contradict the teachings of Islam. After he surveyed the lofty actions undertaken by King Mohammed VI at the service of Islamic religion which preached solidarity, co-existence, peace and refusal of all forms of terrorism, the minister said preachers should be concise and clear. Likewise, he went on, they should avoid to repeat in their Friday preaches the same themes and address subjects that interest Moroccans' social life and advice them on practices reproved by Islam.

The preachers were also invited to avoid issuing tapes and fatwas (religious decrees).