200 Mauritania scholars ban normalisation with Israel

Some 200 Mauritanian scholars and imams issued a fatwa on Sunday prohibiting the normalisation of relations with Israel, considering any relations with “the Zionist entity that usurped the land of Palestine and occupied Jerusalem and its holy sites to be forbidden and not permissible in any way.”

According to the RT website, the group of scholars who signed the fatwa confirmed in their seminar at Al-Tawfiq Mosque in Nouakchott that “normalisation stands for supporting and fully endorsing the Zionist usurpers’ siege, killing and destruction, and has nothing to do with reconciliation.”

The scholars emphasized that normalisation is forbidden and is one of the major taboos in Islam, considering normalisation to be a sign of loyalty, affection and alliance with the enemy and cooperation with it in various fields against Islam and Muslims.

The scholars called on the government to abide by what it had previously announced about having no intention to normalise relations with Israel.

Former Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz took the decision to freeze Mauritania’s relations with Israel in 2009 following the occupation’s brutal war against the Gaza Strip. This was followed by the permanent and official suspension of ties with the occupation in 2010 and the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador from Nouakchott.

Mauritanian political forces and organisations have voiced their refusal of the normalisation agreements signed between Arab countries and Israel under the sponsorship of former US President Donald Trump, the latest of which was the peace accord concluded by Morocco in December.

Mauritania MPs call for criminalising normalisation with Israel