Poor Mauritanian Imams complain to President

Many Mauritanian Imams have criticized the policy of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs which allegedly targeted some of the poor Imams as they call themselves. In a message they addressed to President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, they stressed their anger at the Minister of Islamic Affairs Ahmaed Ould Nini who the claim deprived them of Ramadan aid while it benefits others who have nothing to do with the Islamic Affairs sector. The Imams said in their statement that they are members of the National Union of Imams of Mauritania (Imams of the poor) and that they already had the honour of meeting the President in May 2012 where they presented him the problems they are exposed to, pointing out that the democracy that has been established in his era was built on strong foundations and gave to the individual and society freedom of expression. They say: “we extend this message to inform you that some of the promises you made and assigned to the Minister of Islamic Affiars were not fully implemented and were denied, which has grown divisions and suspicions between Imams. The Minister of Islamic Affairs is working hard to reverse what your programme aims for, the examples of that are many and complex including the unjustified paradoxes under which some Imams had the best chance of receiving aid, while others were excluded for hidden reasons."