HIBAPRESS
Mostafa Al-Ramid, a lawyer and former Minister of Justice and Freedoms, commented on a request submitted by an association to the President of the Court of First Instance in Rabat, aiming to appoint a judicial commissioner to approach the representative of the Supreme Council of Religious Affairs and question him on a number of religious matters, considering that the request "contradicts the law organizing this Council."
Al-Ramid explained, in a post he published on his Facebook page, that the association requested to question the representative of the Supreme Council of Religious Affairs regarding whether Eid al-Adha is a ritual of the rituals of Islam, whether washing the Muslim deceased is among the legitimate acts related to their preparation, and whether describing the washing of the deceased as a violation of their dignity is religiously valid.
He added that the questions also included the declaration of faith in Islam, the extent to which it is permissible to excerpt from it, the ruling on the Tashahhud in prayer according to the Maliki school of thought adopted in Morocco, as well as the extent to which the Sunnah is considered a source of Islamic legislation, along with a request to prepare a report of the questioning for reference when necessary.
Al-Ramid pointed out that the president of the court, through his deputy, issued an order rejecting the request, on the grounds that responding to it "would prejudice the rights of the parties and create evidence in favor of one against the other."
He said that the order, which was issued in the absence of the parties and in a non-disputed matter, provoked various reactions, as some considered it "a victory for one party over another," while others considered it a "betrayal of religion," emphasizing that these positions "are absolutely not borne by the taken order."
Al-Ramid clarified that, regardless of the validity of the reasoning upon which the order was based, which he said is legally debatable, the request to question the representative of the Supreme Council of Religious Affairs "contradicts the law organizing this Council," because the Council "has no representative who can be questioned by anyone on religious issues, even by judicial order."
He indicated that the Supreme Council of Religious Affairs only considers cases presented to it by the King, while requests for fatwas are presented to the Fatwa Committee for their study and issuance of fatwas.
Al-Ramid concluded that the Supreme Council of Religious Affairs adopts a methodology of collective and institutional fatwa issuance, and therefore the party requesting the fatwa should have directed its request directly to the Council, which, through its Fatwa Committee, would consider it and make a decision on it.
He affirmed that this does not prevent members of the Supreme Council of Religious Affairs and other scholars from issuing fatwas in accordance with established practice, however, those fatwas "cannot be attributed to the Supreme Council of Religious Affairs," and they only have official status if issued by it through its competent institution, in accordance with Article 41 of the Constitution.
