Pubic lunch in Ramadan is ridiculous act, says minister

Algerian religious affairs minister Abu Abdellah Ghoulamallah described a public lunch organized by residents in the province of Tizi Ouzou (100 km east of Algiers) during the fasting month of Ramadan as “ridiculous act.”

“Those people do not represent the Kabylian region neither Tizi Ouzou’s residents. A total of 800 mosques are built in this province and one million and 300,000 Muslims are living there,” Ghoulamallah told Echorouk.

“So, 200 people do not represent the region and their act is ridiculous as they want to offend Muslims but they humiliated themselves instead,” he added.

He talked about tens of imams who graduate from Tizi Ouzou’s mosques everyday as they are the “best representatives of Kabylie and Tizi Ouzou’s residents.”

The minister believes that the public lunch will have no impact on fasting Muslims who “did not frequent them.”

“The Kabylie’s residents should be asked about what happened and how did they react. They were against that act and they condemned it.”

Security and judicial authorities did not response to the persons who were behind the public lunch.

Ealier last week, Tizi Ouzou’s prefect said in a new conference security forces will not intervene.

Some partisans protested in Paris to show solidarity with the people who refused to fast.