By Mourad Anouar

Morocco News Tribune

Oklahoma, U.S.A | Morocco’s Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Ahmed Al Tawfiq said Monday that what was issued by the High Council of Ulemas (religious scholars) on apostasy was an “opinion”not a fatwa” in a response to an oral question at the House of Representatives.

Al Tawfiq stressed that the High Council of the Ulemas is fully aware that freedom of faith in Islam is very definitive and is clearly formulated in the the Quranic verse: “There is no compulsion in religion”.

It was worth mentioning that news reports attributed a controversial Fatwa to the Morocco’s High Council of Ulemas (religious scholars), in which the latter was reported to have issued a Fatwa last month decreeing the death penalty for Moroccan Muslims who left Islam.

The High Council of Ulemas, which consists of religious Muslim scholars (Ulemas) appointed by the Ministry of religious Affairs, is considered the highest religious government institution in morocco and is led by King Mohammed VI of Morocco.

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By Mourad Anouar

Morocco Tribune

Oklahoma, U.S.A | According to a new survey, most Muslim world people want Sharia as the official law in their countries, but they disagree on what it includes and who should be subject to it.

“A new Pew Research Center survey of Muslims around the globe finds that most adherents of the world’s second-largest religion are deeply committed to their faith and want its teachings to shape not only their personal lives but also their societies and politics,” Pew said.

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life said that over three-quarters of Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia want sharia courts to decide family law issues such as divorce and property disputes.

The percentage of Muslims who expressed their favor to have the sharia to be “the official law of the land” varies widely around the world, from fewer than one-in-ten in Azerbaijan (8%) to near unanimity in Afghanistan (99%). But solid majorities in most of the countries surveyed across the Middle East and North Africa, sub -Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia favor the establishment of sharia, including 71% of Muslims in Nigeria, 72% in Indonesia, 74% in Egypt and 89% in the Palestinian territories,”

As for religious tolerance, the survey finds that most Muslims favor religious freedom for people of other faiths. “In Pakistan, for example, three-quarters of Muslims say that non-Muslims are very free to practice their religion, and fully 96% of those who share this assessment say it is “a good thing.” Yet 84% of Pakistani Muslims favor enshrining sharia as official law. These seemingly divergent views are possible partly because most supporters of sharia in Pakistan – as in many other countries – think Islamic law should apply only to Muslims. Moreover, Muslims around the globe have differing understandings of what sharia means in practice,”

As for the issues of women, “majorities of Muslim women as well as men agree that a wife is always obliged to obey her husband. Indeed, more than nine-in-ten Muslims in Iraq (92%), Morocco (92%), Tunisia (93%), Indonesia (93%), Afghanistan (94%) and Malaysia (96%) express this view,”

Concerning the freedom to wear the Hijab, majorities in many countries surveyed say a woman should be able to decide for herself whether to wear it or not.

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By Mourad Anouar

Morocco News Tribune

Oklahoma, U.S.A |As Americans of all ages are fairly split on how they perceive Islam, the general trend reveals that older Americans have a less positive impression of Islam, according to a new report from Barna Group.

David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group, commented on the findings. “The study raises questions for Christians in America. While Muslims remain a very small part of the entire U.S. population, the world is shrinking in many ways. Events like those in Boston focus the public’s attention on Islam,”

“Increasing immigration of Muslims into the country changes population densities. The Internet and social media bring human beings of different faiths and contexts into closer digital proximity. And the implications of events in predominantly Muslim nations, including the Middle East, affect millions around the world. For example, how do U.S. Christians help support persecuted Christians who live in other countries, without demonizing Muslims at the same time?,”

The recent Barna study suggests one-third of Americans (33%) have a favorable perception of Islam, while slightly more (36%) say they have an unfavorable perception of the religion.

“Only 5% of Elders—adults who are 67 or older—say they have a “very favorable” perception of Islam, compared to 14% of Mosaics—ages 18 to 28—who say the same. About one in five Elders also say they have a “very unfavorable” perception of Islam (21%), while less than one in eight Mosaics feel that way (13%),”

As for the role of politics in defining people’s perception of Islam, the research indicates that the only group with a lower response of “very favorable” than Elders were Republicans or those who define themselves as so.

“Half of political conservatives (50%) say they have at least a somewhat unfavorable perception of Islam, while only about in five (22%) political liberals say the same,” the report said.

The report also examines perceptions based on religious affiliation where Evangelical Christians have the most unfavorable perception of Islam, with two-thirds of evangelicals saying they have an unfavorable impression (62%), and with four in ten evangelicals holding a very unfavorable perception (39%).

Barna Group, a private, non-partisan, for-profit organization Located in Ventura, California, has been conducting and analyzing primary research to understand cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors since 1984.

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By Mourad Anouar

Morocco News Tribune

Oklahoma, U.S.A | Who would have ever thought the former Geert Wilders’s Confidante and Former Dutch Islamophobe ‘Arnoud Van Doorn’ would Convert to a religion he hated enormously?

Arnoud Van Doorn who had done a lot to fight Islam in the Netherlands and Europe on the grounds that this faith poses a threat to the Western civilization and is not compatible with democracy announced his decision to revert to Islam on his Twitter profile both in English and Arabic, Saudi Al-Madinah newspaper reported.

“there is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet,” he tweeted in Arabic as in accordance with one of the five pillars of Islam.

The former leading member in far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders’ party has reverted to Islam after studying a lot about one of the most misunderstood religion on earth, Saudi newspapers reported.

Van Doorn is now in a visit to Saudi Arabia to perform his first `Umrah (lesser pilgrimage) in his life.

“If any person told me that I will visit the land of the two holy shrines, I would have told him that he must be insane,” Arnoud Van Doorn told Al-Madinah newspaper.

“Finding Islam is a dream came true,” a tearful Doorn added.

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By Samira Arabi

Morocco News Tribune

Agadir, Morocco | Morocco’s High Council of Ulemas (religious scholars) has issued a controversial Fawta decreeing the death penalty for Moroccan Muslims who left Islam.

The ruling, which came on page 285 in a book written by the High Council of Ulemas under the title “Fatwas of the years 2004-2012, was requested by and sent to the interministerial Delegation for Human Rights of Morocco which sought an explanation of Islam’s view on freedom of belief in the framework of the preparation of the sixth periodic report for the implementation of the International Covenant on civil and political rights.

The High Council of Ulemas backed up their opinion with the Koranic verse “And whoever of you reverts from his religion [to disbelief] and dies while he is a disbeliever – for those, their deeds have become worthless in this world and the Hereafter, and those are the companions of the Fire, they will abide therein eternally,” Surat Al-Baqarah[verse 217].

And the prophet’s Hadith “…The Prophet said, ‘If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him.‘ 

According to Article 220 of the Moroccan Penal Code: “anyone who has impeded or prevented one or more persons from worship or from attending worship services of any religion may be punished by six-months to three-years imprisonment, and a fine of 200 to 500 dirhams.”

On the other hand, the Moroccan website Lakome reported that a source from High Council of Ulemas informed them that the controversial ruling is not an official Fatwa, but it was in fact only a viewpoint of Islamic law.

The High Council of Ulemas, which consists of religious Muslim scholars (Ulemas) appointed by the Ministry of Religious Endowments and Islamic Affairs, is considered the highest religious government institution in Morocco and is led by King Mohammed Vl of Morocco.

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