Morocco limits preaching about war in the Middle East that appeals to jihad

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Politicians and activists in Morocco are questioning restrictions placed on preachers on what they can say during sermons about war in the Middle East.

During a meeting in the country’s parliament this week, the socialist lawmaker said Nabila Mounib deplored the way imams have been limited in how they can speak about the plight of Palestinians and call for religious struggle to support their cause.

“No imam can speak on the Palestinian issue,” Mounib claimed on Tuesday. “Today no one demands jihad for our brothers in Palestine.”

Since the war between Israel and Hamas began fourteen months ago, activists have also been concerned about the restrictions placed on preaching about Palestinians. Morocco’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs said in a statement last October that a document circulating on social media purporting to outline such borders was forged and stressed Morocco’s support for the Palestinian cause.

In an interview with Moroccan newspaper Anfas Press on Friday, Mounib said she planned to denounce efforts to prevent imams from preaching about Palestinians, but had not said they should call for jihad from their pulpits.

“Jihad,” which means struggle or effort in Arabic, can indicate the pursuit of living in accordance with the path of God, either by finding faith internally or by fighting externally for Islamic principles such as justice. However, it can be interpreted in more militant terms as ‘holy war’ and has been used by some as a religious concept used to recruit volunteers to fight since the start of the Soviet-Afghan War in 1979.

The debate focuses on whether it should be allowed to invoke jihad in relation to the war between Israel and Hamas.

Islamic Affairs Minister Ahmed Toufiq later denied Mounib’s claim that preachers cannot bring up the war between Israel and Hamas, but acknowledged and defended the ban on calls for jihad.

“Any imam who speaks about and denounces barbarity and injustice is welcome, but calling for jihad is something else,” he said.

Toufiq explained the ban this week and warned that there are different interpretations of jihad.

But for some pro-Palestinian activists in Morocco, the restrictions have less to do with jihad and more to do with the tensions between state and society that have continued to simmer since the war began.

“Imams have the right to take a stand and even have a duty in Islam,” Ahmed Wehman of the Moroccan Observatory for Anti-Normalization told the Associated Press. “The government has nothing to do with Moroccan public opinion. They do not represent Morocco and Moroccans.”

Morocco has one of the most historically important Jewish communities in the region and was one of the four Arab states normalize ties with Israel in 2020. But tens of thousands of protesters have regularly taken to the streets in major cities Throughout the fourteen-month war, protests against Israel’s actions demanded that Morocco cut diplomatic ties.

Protests have united socialists like Mounib with Islamists, including those from the Justice and Development Party and Al Adl Wal Ihsane, a banned but tolerated Islamist movement that does not participate in electoral politics. Some of its members arrest awaited and prison for expressing opinions on social media about Morocco’s ties with Israel during the war.

Many governments dictate what preachers can say from the pulpit in Muslim-majority countries, including Morocco, which has long worked to portray its Islam as a moderating force to the world. This is among the authorities’ strategies to curb extremism, but can sometimes push believers to seek spiritual guidance outside the government-controlled religious sphere.

Francesco Cavatorta, a professor of political science at Université Laval in Quebec, said countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Egypt and Syria have historically exercised control over imams to control the narrative of religion and ensure sermons do not undermine national stability.

In Morocco, he said, the arrangement is “part of an effort to be seen as a country that is a Muslim country, but a tolerant country and a hospitable country.”

Morocco this year suspended preachers who deviate from guidelines. The Ministry of Islamic Affairs publishes guidelines for imams on Wednesdays, two days before Friday prayers.

The content of sermons has pitted the government against activists in the past. In 2017, as anti-government protests swept northern Morocco, the Islamic Affairs Ministry ordered preachers to accuse activists of promoting division among Muslims, the online news channel Le Desk reported. Nasser Zefzafi, the country’s most famous political prisoner, was arrested later that year after interrupting a sermon about the protests and questioning whether mosques served God or the monarchy.

Morocco’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs did not respond to requests for comment.

Imams throughout the Middle East and North Africa have regularly referred to the war since October 2023, including in countries where the government monitors their sermons.

“The way to eradicate oppression and evil anywhere in the world is through the unity and solidarity of Muslims,” Ali Erbas, the head of Turkey’s Presidency of Religious Affairs, said in a sermon delivered in Azerbaijan on Friday. “If Muslims work together with the consciousness of brotherhood and the spirit of solidarity, all people will find peace.”

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Akram Oubachir and Suzan Fraser contributed from Casablanca, Morocco and Ankara, Turkey.