Imams questioned over Friday speeches

Imams and Religious Affairs Employees’ National Independent Council is expected to submit new demands to the ministry to ban the law on mosques and the criminalization of imams due to Friday speeches.

This comes as the council’s chairman was questioned over his remarks in his Friday speech in a mosque. “Is public money wasted for electoral campaign purposes?”

“I was question because of that question,” Djamel Ghoul told Echorouk.

He added that the council will submit new demands to the ministry to ban the law on mosques which was promulgated by former head of government Ahmed Ouyahia and the law on criminalizing journalists and imams in terms of expression freedom.

“The law was banned for journalists but it is still in force for imams.”

Ghoul also calls for not questioning imams anymore. An imam was prevented from delivering speeches on Fridays because he said children should be brought up in accordance to Islamic precepts.

“Imams do not belong to any party. He should talk about different issues and compare them to religious education,” said Ghoul.

“It is right that Friday’s speeches are unwritten and imams are free to say whatever they want. Yet, the law on mosques does not include an article to protect imams from absolute freedom in criticism. When they criticize a minister or a given policy, he is question. This is illogical. Imams should be free to fight corruption ion society,” he added.