ALGIERS- The General Secretariat of the International Union of Muslim Ulemas has endorsed the resignation of Ahmed Raissouni from the presidency of the organization. In a press release made public, the executive body affirmed that the renunciation of the Moroccan preacher at the helm of the Union is “in the interest of the Union and is in accordance with its statutes”. The resignation will be submitted, within one month, added the same source, to the Extraordinary General Meeting, giving the floor to the competent authority to rule on it.
Raissouni said, in the statement of resignation, that he remains committed to what he describes as “inalienable and entrenched positions and opinions that cannot be bargained over”.
In its disillusionment, the Makhzen calls on one of its most appointed obsequiers to play the herald of its disastrous theses which are now not limited to Western Sahara, but go beyond to address other territories, such as to “conquer” Mauritania and why not Algeria via Tindouf.
The statements of the President of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, the Moroccan preacher Ahmed Raissouni, have left a wave of anger and resentment at the popular and political levels, after he attacked Algeria with seditious remarks that undermine its sovereignty.
The statements could spark an open war in the region, as he called on the Moroccan people to crawl on Tindouf, dubbing it as “Moroccan”. He called his people, victims of the policy of impoverishment of the regime of Mohammed VI, to reinvent the “green march” illusion to seize Western Sahara, and why not both Mauritania and Tindouf. This means that the expansionist policy of the makhzen has no limits now!
Raissouni said in an exclusive interview with one of the television channels: “If the King of Morocco calls for jihad, we are ready to go on a march in Tindouf that lasts weeks and months”, which is an explicit reference to his call for an open war against Algeria, and a clear threat to its sovereignty and geographical borders.
Abdelkader Bengrina: Our lands were liberated in blood
The recent statements of the President of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, Ahmed Raissouni, provoked condemning reactions in Algeria, especially from the Islamic-oriented parties associated with the Union. The Movement of Society for Peace said that it followed up with “with all the astonishment the media statement of Dr. Ahmed Raissouni, in which he spoke about the readiness of the people, scholars and preachers in Morocco to wage jihad with money and soul, and to march in the millions to Tindouf, Algeria, as well as an entire country, which is Mauritania.” The movement led by Abd al-Razzaq Makri described what Raissouni said as “the dangerous and resounding fall of a world of Muslim scholars, in which it is supposed to resort to legal balances and Islamic values, not to call for sedition and fighting among Muslims, according to what he called jihad with money and soul.”
For his part, the president of the El-Bina movement, Abdelkader Bengrina said: “Raissouni’s statements shocked the feelings of Algerians, and many peoples of the Maghreb region, such as; Mauritanians and Sahrawis….with his arrogant rhetoric and irresponsible remarks, the preacher attacked the sovereignty of States and the dignity of their peoples, especially when he uses the term jihad to enter Algerian lands liberated by the martyrs during the glorious national revolution of one and a half million pure-blooded people. He added:
bengrina said in the same statement: “The repeated attacks by Moroccan symbols on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Algeria are diverse and recurrent in its official and scholarly forms, accompanied by the deafening silence of the Makhzen regime, which confirms the Moroccan colonial and expansionist character which does not respect any charter, any international law, nor good neighbourliness; all these maneuvers are taking place in deliberate coordination and harmony with drawn and precise objectives.”
He pointed out that “we have become certain that this person’s leadership of this body will damage its credibility, and therefore our scholars should keep such personalities away from their institutions.”
