During the recent historic visit to Morocco by French President Emmanuel Macron, just a month ago, an important meeting brought together Ahmed Toufiq, Minister of Habous and Islamic Affairs, with the French Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau , who came as part of the imposing delegation accompanying Macron.
According to Ahmed Toufiq’s statements last Monday before the Chamber of Deputies, as reported by the daily Assaba in its edition of Wednesday, November 27, this meeting which brought him together with the French Minister of the Interior was not secret, but was not publicized in the media either at the time.
He thus revealed to the deputies, in response to a question relating to imams and religious leaders in Europe among the Moroccan diaspora, the juicy details of what they said to each other in private, he and Retailleau. The majority of the current French political class recognizes that Moroccan Islam is tolerant, but refuses to say it publicly, or even conceals it for electoral reasons, as in many European countries.
Retailleau is said to have affirmed to Ahmed Toufiq that, although Moroccan Islam is very tolerant, the fact remains that “secularism shocks you“. The response from the Moroccan minister fell like a blade: “But of course not“, he retorted.
«And how can you convince me that secularism does not shock Moroccans?? », questioned the French minister. “Secularism does not shock us, because, in all simplicity, we are secular. asserted the Minister of Habous, facing his stunned interlocutor.
Certainly, Toufiq said, Morocco does not have a law on secularism like the one which, in 1905, established in France the definitive separation between the State and the Church, a secularism which was transformed, with the time, at war against everything religious. But Morocco respects the religious legality and legitimacy of the Commandery of the Believers, which never interferes in the individual freedoms of believers, according to the precept of the Koran: “no constraints in religion“. Which means that every Muslim is free to do what they want, Toufiq explained to the French Minister of the Interior. The latter was totally surprised by the explanations of the Minister of Habous, who said he received last Monday a missive sent by Bruno Retailleau, in which he asked him to continue the interesting and fruitful debate that they began face-to-face. in Rabat.
Toufiq concluded by affirming that his objective was to make France, as well as other European countries, understand that Morocco only seeks to regulate the religious life of its nationals abroad by teaching them an Islam tolerant.
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