Religious associations asks Government for granting fund-raising license

Dozens of religious associations asked the Algerian Government to complete the mosque-building projects which have turned into open workshops, owing to lack of financial resources and the dependence on voluntary contributions hailing only from religious associations for that purpose.

These religious associations have also pointed to the Administration’s lingering procrastination in granting the necessary financial packages due to be allotted to this effect by the relevant commissions at the national level.

In this connection, an MP of the national people’s Assembly, Hassan Aribi, asked an oral question to the minister of religious affairs and endowments, Mohamed Aissa, urging him to intervene to facilitate the early building of new mosques, because many of them shifted over to standstill projects at the national level, due to the absence of financial resources and shortages in charity funding.

The MP added that the case involves dozens of mosques now under construction in various provinces of the country, most of which rely solely on voluntary contributions from well-meaning citizens.

“The pace of delivery of the projects is slow, and the question is that the Ministry of religious affairs has been relying on benefactors for the building of these new mosques from year to year, given that the Government, he said, doesn’t fully contribute to the achievement of these places of worship and leave it open to philanthropists and sometimes even fund-raising is stymied by the Administration for the construction of these stand-by mosques across the national territory”, as he put it.