Mohamed Issa: “Hezbollah Did Not Open Bank Accounts For Hamas In Algeria”

Religious Affairs and Endowments Minister, Mohamed Aissa, refuted the news of media, which included the Shiite Hezbollah’s funding for Hamas through Algerian banks, and expressed Algeria’s refusal to be part of a sectarian conflict and also refuses to be a field for it, saying, “Who wants to combat a sectarian war, has to do it in his own country”.

On Sunday, the Saudi daily newspaper “Okaz” published a report alleging that the Lebanese Hezbollah opened bank accounts for the movement’s leaders in Algeria and that the funds that were injected into these accounts were transferred from local banks in Algeria, that belong to bank accounts of party members who are residing in Algiers.”

“Algeria refuses to be a part to a sectarian conflict and also refuses to be a field for it, and anyone who wants to combat a sectarian war he can do it in his country,” Aissa said in a response to press questions on Tuesday in Blida. 

Previously, Hamas movement refuted the information in statements to “Echorouk” that were made by the spokesman of the movement Sami Abu Zuhri, who considered it “naive”.

He asserted; “a number of foreign parties seek to disrupt Algeria by trying to introduce extremist ideas that divided the neighboring countries that are now living on the impact of the bombings and murder, which is rejected by the Algerian people which loves the unity of homeland”.

“Algerians have long lived brothers who do not differentiate between a Sufi and a Wahabi, but Muslims who believe in Allah and His Messenger, which our forefathers taught us and will teach to future generations,”, Minister of Religion, Mohamed Issa, said.

In the opinion of the Minister of Religious Affairs and Endowments, the best way to fight these movements is to celebrate the birth of the Prophet, which is an opportunity to evoke the values ​​of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, and his principles, noting that the association of Algerians and their love of their Prophet does not require a fatwa.

In response to the exploitation of some social networks to promote the idea of ​​prohibiting the celebration of the birth of the Prophet Mohammed, the Minister said that the imams are also present, through the Facebook pages, to respond to these “rumors” by providing evidence, adding that the Association of Muslim Scholars founded and called to revive this religious occasion every year.

At the beginning of the week, Sheikh Ali Farkous, who is known as the polemic of scientific Salafism in the country, published a lengthy fatwa on his website under the title “Ruling on celebrating the birth of the best of the blessed Messengers of Allah, Mohammed, peace be upon him”.

He concluded that the celebration is an innovation and Muslims should never be preoccupied with it; “the celebration of the Prophet’s birth, which some people have created, is either an imitation of the Christians in the birth of Jesus, peace be upon him, or a love for the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and to glorify him, but this has no basis neither in Koran nor in Sunnah, and the Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, did not celebrate the birth of one of his predecessors of the prophets and the righteous”.